Opposition to Challenge Ishikawa Gov.'s Olympics-Related Remark

   Tokyo, Nov. 19 (Jiji Press)--Junya Ogawa, former policy affairs chief of the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said Sunday that the controversial remark by Ishikawa Governor Hiroshi Hase related to Olympic bidding activities needs to be sternly challenged in the Diet, Japan's parliament.
   In a speech on Friday, Hase made a statement to the effect that he used confidential funds of the Cabinet Secretariat to send a gift to an International Olympic Committee member as part of activities in bidding linked to the Tokyo Olympics. The governor, who was a House of Representatives lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and head of the party's Olympic bidding headquarters when the IOC picked Tokyo in 2013 as the host of the 2020 Summer Games, withdrew the remark on Saturday, saying that there was a factual error.
   "I find it very hard to believe that it was a statement based on a factual error," CDP's Ogawa said in a television program Sunday. "It was a statement of conviction."
   Hase's act may constitute a violation of the IOC's Code of Ethics.

(2023/11/19-16:53)

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