Japan's top court has rejected an appeal by a secretary of a disgraced lawmaker accused of illegally paying election campaigners, judicial sources said Saturday, making it even more likely the former ruling party member will lose her parliament seat.The decision made by the Supreme Court's First Petty Bench on Wednesday all but finalizes lower court rulings that sentenced Hiroshi Tatemichi, 55, a state-paid secretary of upper house lawmaker Anri Kawai, to 18 months in prison, suspended for five years.Kawai is currently on trial on vote-buying charges during the upper house election campaign…READ FULL ARTICLE
