[/floatr]Yomiuri: Shinginko did Ishihara's bidding
At the suggestion of Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, debt-ridden bank Shinginko Tokyo bought artworks in autumn 2005 from a cultural group that was the subject of nepotism charges a year later, when the group's adviser, Ishihara's fourth son, was accused of going on junkets at the Tokyo taxpayers' expense...The Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo-based bank, which is saddled with huge accumulated losses due to soured loans, bought three pictures for a total of 516,000 yen from Tokyo Wonder Site (TWS), a group established by the Tokyo metropolitan government to support young artists and promote cultural activities...According to sources at the metropolitan government and the bank, Ishihara visited the bank in March 2005, just before it started business, and told bank officials that the bank should buy pictures from TWS, saying: "The bank looks bare. How about buying pictures by artists exhibiting their works for the TWS project?"...Shinginko Tokyo, established by the metropolitan government as Ishihara's brainchild, had incurred accumulated losses of 93.6 billion yen by the end of September as a result of its chalking up a huge amount of uncollectible loans and other reasons. The metropolitan government, therefore, submitted a budget that includes a plan to inject 40 billion yen of fresh capital into the bank to help its management...When the bank was opened, Ishihara proudly called it "my bank." Recently, however, Ishihara has been saying at the metropolitan assembly and other places that the metropolitan government is "just an equity holder in the bank," and that it is "totally wrong" for people to say he played a central role in establishing the bank...more...
