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At the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly's 100-Article Committee held on the 25th, witness questioning was continued on the 24th regarding allegations surrounding last year's Hanshin-Orix victory parade. Former Hyogo Prefecture Vice-Governor Yasutaka Katayama responded to an interview after questioning, admitting that he had asked financial institutions to help raise funds, but once again denied the allegations of kickbacks. The deceased former head of the Nishi-Harima Prefectural Citizens Bureau (then 60 years old) wrote in his indictment documents regarding the cost of hosting the parade, "We solicited donations from companies, but the result was far below the required amount," and "We increased the prefecture's subsidy to the Shinkin Bank and made up for it by kicking it back as donations." The 100-Article Committee meeting on the 25th was closed to the public in consideration of the impact on the gubernatorial election to be held on November 17th, but former Vice-Governor Yasutaka Katayama, who was pointed out in the documents as having acted as the "control tower," responded to questions from the press after the questioning. (Q: How do you explain collecting sponsorship money from credit unions?) "I asked the credit unions, 'We were in a deficit, so please help us out somehow.' I was also the director of the prefecture's Industrial and Labor Department, so the chairman of the credit union knew quite a few people." (Q: Did they have the relationships to accept my request?) "I think they did." While he acknowledges that he asked financial institutions to help raise funds, when it came to the allegations of kickbacks... "There is no correlation whatsoever between collecting sponsorship money and increasing subsidies. When I was asked if there had been any kickbacks, I answered, 'Of course we did not do anything like that.'"