Ken Harada (原田 憲, Harada Ken, February 12, 1919 – January 29, 1997) was a member of the Diet of Japan from the Liberal Democratic Party[1] until resigning his office on January 24, 1989[2] following alleged involvement in the Recruit scandal, where Harada admitted Recruit had given him donations, in the form of seasonal summer gifts,[3] for ten years.[4] While the donations were not illegal, they raised questions of political ethics which eventually led Harada to resign.[3] As a member of the Diet, Harada served as Minister of Economic Planning, and earned the close trust of Prime MinisterNoboru Takeshita.[5] He was the third minister to resign over the scandal.[2] Harada had been appointed to direct the Ministry of Economic Planning only one month before his resignation.[6][7] After party officials had already placed him as the chair of a committee in charge of investigating the Recruit stock scandal,[8] where he had concluded that nothing illegal had taken place.[9] In 1992, Harada backed Keizō Obuchi as new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.[10]Kōichirō Aino [ja] replaced Harada as Minister of Economic Planning.[3]
^䝪䞊䜲䝇䜹䜴䝖日本連盟 きじ章受章者 [Recipient of the Golden Pheasant Award of the Scout Association of Japan] (PDF). Reinanzaka Scout Club (in Japanese). 2014-05-23. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2020-08-11.
