Ex-DPJ chief Ichiro Ozawa acquitted in political funding scandal

Japan's one-time political kingmaker Ichiro Ozawa has been cleared of misreporting political funds, ending a drawn-out legal battle for one of the country's most colourful politicians.

The appeal court upheld an earlier ruling that Ozawa did nothing wrong in failing initially to report 400 million yen (HKD$39 million) that he had loaned to the funding body supporting his political machine.

Ozawa, 70, was once one of Japan's most powerful politicians, earning the moniker "Shadow Shogun" for behind-the-scenes manoeuvring that shaped large parts of the parliamentary landscape.

A former player in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, he is credited with engineering the 2009 general election victory of the now-governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which he once led.

But his star has largely faded in recent times and his departure from the DPJ to set up his own party earlier this year did not prove the terminal blow to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda that commentators speculated he was hoping for.

Yesterday, presiding judge Shoji Ogawa of the Tokyo High Court upheld an April acquittal for Ozawa on charges he had conspired not to report the 400 million yen loan in 2004.