Lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata revealed Friday that Takashi Nishizawa, a freelance journalist who later published a magazine, was the source of what was supposed to be an explosive e-mail showing a cash link between Livedoor Co. and a son of the Liberal Democratic Party secretary general.
"I have kept his name secret until now as part of my efforts to protect my source. But once it became clear I was provided with bogus information, I concluded there was no trust between the source and me," Nagata told the House of Representatives' Disciplinary Committee in explanation for his decision to name Nishizawa.
Committee members later unanimously agreed to summon Nishizawa as a sworn witness to the panel on April 4. The DPJ had been reluctant to have him appear before a Diet committee.
DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama told reporters Friday that the journalist had forwarded the e-mail to Nagata, but later denied his involvement. "Such a lie is unforgivable," Hatoyama said.
On Wednesday, Nagata, a lower house independent lawmaker after being suspended from the Democratic Party of Japan, refused to name the person who last month gave him the e-mail.
But following his appearance in front of the committee, he came under heavy pressure from both inside and outside the DPJ to reveal his source.
Nagata first read out the e-mail, in which then Livedoor President Takafumi Horie appeared to have instructed an employee to send 30 million yen to a son of LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe, during a Feb. 16 Diet session broadcast live on TV.
In Friday's testimony to the committee, Nagata denied paying Nishizawa for the information. "There was no payment at all. We made no promise at all on any reward for the information and I regret it if such speculation's being made," he said.
Nagata added, however, that he had once paid Nishizawa 420,000 yen for publications using a supporters association fund to purchase 400 copies of his magazine.
Nagata said he still did not know who originally wrote the e-mail and gave it to Nishizawa, who said he was working as a go-between.
As the e-mail's credibility was called into question following the Feb. 16 Diet session, Nagata asked Nishizawa to confirm the message's authenticity to no avail, the lawmaker said Friday. "His explanations often lacked consistency, and he changed his story a few times, too," Nagata said of his exchanges with Nishizawa.
Prior to Friday's disciplinary committee session, Nishizawa circulated a statement to the DPJ and others saying he had not mediated between the original source of the e-mail and Nagata. But the DPJ lawmaker insisted Nishizawa was lying. "I bet my political life on it," Nagata said. "What he's saying is 100 percent a lie."
Nagata acknowledged Friday he had harmed the Takebes' reputation by publicly accusing them based on the false information, but said he was not planning to resign as a lawmaker to take responsibility.
