TOKYO, Oct. 23, 2009 (Kyodo News International) -- Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama overwhelmingly ranked at the top in terms of family assets of the 18 Cabinet members, documents they submitted showed Friday.
Hatoyama's family assets totaled 1,442.69 million yen, followed by Mizuho Fukushima, state minister for consumer affairs, with 249.99 million yen, according to the documents. Fukushima heads the Social Democratic Party, one of the coalition partners of Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan.
Assets declared by Cabinet ministers and their immediate family members averaged 140.44 million yen, slightly down from the record 141.28 million yen declared last year by Cabinet members of Hatoyama's predecessor Taro Aso of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma reported no assets of his own.
Hatoyama is the grandson of the first LDP president and former Prime Minister Ichiro Hatoyama, while his mother is the daughter of the founder of Japan's top tire maker Bridgestone Corp.
In last year's disclosure of Cabinet members' assets, Hatoyama's younger brother, then Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama, ranked No. 1 with more than 700 million yen.
Five of the Hatoyama Cabinet members reported more than 100 million yen in family assets.
Among Hatoyama's family assets are more than 1 billion yen in financial assets that include nearly 900 million yen in time deposits. Hatoyama owns a home in Tokyo's Ota Ward and a villa in the summer resort of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture. His assets also include 3.5 million Bridgestone Corp. shares.
Family assets subject to disclosures include real estate, deposits and securities held by the politicians, their spouses and children financially dependent on them.
Land and building are declared in terms of assessed value for real property taxes, while government bonds and other securities other than stocks are reported in terms of face value.
Stockholding disclosures do not cover market value and are limited to the names of the issues and the number of shares as par-value stocks were abolished in 2001.
Financial experts said Hatoyama's family assets may reach 9 billion yen if stocks and other securities holdings are measured in terms of market value.
Of the 249.99 million yen in family assets declared by Fukushima, half are time deposits, which she earned as a lawyer before gaining her upper house seat in 1998. Her assets include 122.65 million yen held by her husband, who is also a lawyer. The two are not legally married.
Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii ranked third with 202.13 million yen, most of which are real estate he holds in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Gunma prefectures.
Financial Services Minister Shizuka Kamei, who heads the DPJ's another coalition partner, the People's New Party, ranked fourth with 187.44 million yen. Kamei also declared 6.18 million yen in borrowings.
Two ministers declared less than 10 million yen in family assets. Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa's assets came to 6.09 million yen. Health minister Nagatsuma's family assets stood at 8.91 million yen in postal savings held by his relatives.
Meanwhile, family assets held by three deputy chief Cabinet secretaries and 22 senior vice ministers averaged 28.09 million yen and those by 25 parliamentary secretaries averaged 16.48 million yen -- both a new low.
Cabinet members began disclosing their assets in 1984 under then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, after former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was convicted in the Lockheed bribery scandal the previous year.
Currently, the prime minister, Cabinet ministers, senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries are required to disclose their assets under a 2001 Cabinet decision on ethical standards of ministers.
In addition to real estate, deposits and securities, they are also required to report golf memberships, automobiles and art works as other forms of assets but their value is not declared.
