Jail term to be finalized for ex-Japan minister over vote buying

A three-year prison term for former Japanese Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai for buying votes for his wife in the 2019 upper house election is set to be finalized as he intends to drop his appeal in the high-profile case, a source familiar with the matter said Tuesday.Kawai will likely become the first former Japanese Cabinet member in over 10 years to have a prison term finalized. In its ruling in June this year, which found Kawai had handed out a total of 28.7 million yen ($251,000) to buy votes, the Tokyo District Court also ordered a forfeiture of 1.3 million yen.The court ruled that K…READ FULL ARTICLE