Japanese scandal witness harassed in N.Z.

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 1

Japanese scandal witness harassed in N.Z.

Special correspondent Auckland The Auckland police vigorously deny that Japanese consular officials tried to persuade them not to interfere in a case involving a controversial Japanese woman living in St Heliers. The Japanese magazine, “Gendai,” asserts in its November issue that Mrs Mieko Fukuda, a key witness against the former Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Kakuei Tanaka, had asked for Auckland police help in removing a Japanese television crew as trespassers on her property. Her husband, Mr Satoru Fukuda, was quoted by the magazine as saying that on the day after the incident in March, an Auckland police representative was invited to

dinner by the consulate and asked “not to touch the case.” "The correspondent for “The Press” and the “New Zealand Herald" in Tokyo reports that Mrs Fukuda, whose former husband was Mr Tanaka's private secretary, fled to New Zealand last December to escape the Japanese news media. They had hounded her for interviews after she told the Tokyo District Court that her former busband had admitted to her that he had received SUS2.S million from the Marubeni Corporation, the Lockheed sales agent in Japan, and delivered it to Mr Tanaka. Chief Inspector R. I. Chadwick, of the Auckland central police, said last evening; that on March 29 this

year the Fukudas’ landlady and an Auckland television reporter complained to the police about the alleged harassment of Mr and Mrs Fukuda at their St Heliers home by an Asahi Television crew from Japan. The alleged harassment included attempts to get into the house on three or four occasions, filming inside the bouse through Venetian blinds, and attempting to gain a vantage point from a neighbouring property, said Mr Chadwick. “As a result of these complaints, Mrs Fukuda was seen (by the police) with her landlady and an interpreter,” he said. “A local solicitor was approached and asked to serve notice of warning under the Trespass Act on the Japanese television crew who were

staying in a large, inner-city hotel. “It is believed that the notice was served on these people by the solicitor.” Mr Chadwick said that a senior policeman mentioned to Mr and Mrs Fukuda that he would be dining with the Japanese Consul the next night (March 30). The Fukudas were asked if the matter of alleged harassment should be mentioned to the consular officials. "At the request of the Fukudas, the matter was not mentioned to the Japanese Consul and at no time has the matter been discussed with the Japanese Consul by the police,” said Mr Chadwick. “The (dinner) engagement on that night had been arranged several weeks before

the complaints had been made to the police about the alleged harassment.” In the "Genedal” article, Mrs Fukuda criticises “a New Zealand television station” for renting a house opposite hers to secretly film her. Asked to comment on her allegation, Mr Bruce Crossan, the controller of Television New Zealand news and current affairs, said: “We did not rent a house. There is no way we would rent a house to keep an eye on her. “We did not have a direct involvement in the sense of us lining her up. “We were tagging along. We wanted to know what Asahi turned over so we could have a look at it.” Mr Crossan said he understood from his staff that the

Asahi crew "got nowhere” with Mrs Fukuda. Mrs Fukuda was reported in “Gendai” as claiming to have received up to 38 threatening telephone calls a day from Tokyo while she was in Auckland, even though her number was unlisted. She said that the snoop Japanese magazine, "Focus,” had also sent staff to Auckland to photograph her. Mr Tanaka, against whom Mrs Fukuda testified last October, is still on trial in the six-year-old case for allegedly accepting the bribe in return for helping Lockheed sell its Tristar air buses to All-Nippon Airways. Mrs Fukuda, aged 34, who has admitted that she gave the incriminating testimony out of spite because her husband dishonoured her

divorce settlement terms, fled first to Christchurch to hold a wedding ceremony at St Barnabas’ Church. She honeymooned with Mr Fukuda in Akaroa before going to Auckland to live. “Gendai" quotes her as saying her New Zealand visa would expire in December and she was unsure whether a lawyer could help her extend it. Accompanied by her husband. aged 29, she flew out of Auckland last week and met a blaze of publicity on arrival at Tokyo. Footnote: The Tokyo police arrested Mr Fukuda two days ago on charges of having embezzled about $20,000 in Tokyo earlier last year. Japanese press reports said he worked for the “politicalfinancial World Research Foundation" of Tokyo.