AFP

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday apologised for having received cash from foreigners in an echo of a donations scandal that brought down a previous minister.

Noda admitted having "unknowingly" received 471,000 yen ($6,000) from two foreign nationals but said he had already returned the funds.

"I sincerely apologise for causing concerns and trouble," Noda said. "I will pay full attention from now on so that such cases will never happen again."

According to the prime minister, one of the unidentified foreign donors had provided him with 261,000 yen over seven years to 2006, while the other gave him 210,000 yen over a three-year period up to 2003.

In March, then foreign minister Seiji Maehara resigned after opposition parties piled pressure on him over money he received from a foreign resident of Japan, in violation of the law.

Funding laws in Japan bar politicians from receiving any money from non-Japanese, even those who were born in Japan but do not have Japanese citizenship because of the country's strict nationality laws.

Source:  

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-pm-apologises-over-foreign-donation-192236748.html