Inose accepted a ¥50 million (£296,000/$485,000/€353,000) loan from hospital group Tokushukai before his election last year.

Inose has claimed that the money he borrowed from Lower House politician Takeshi Tokuda last November was a "personal loan," rather than to help bankroll his election campaign.

Tokuda is the second son of Tokushukai founder Torao Tokuda, whose hospital chain was probed by prosecutors in September for allegedly breaking the election law.

Six arrests have been made so far in relation to the scandal, where rewards were allegedly provided to employees of the hospital group recruited to participate in Tokuda's successful Lower House campaign in December 2012. 

Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Naoki Inose bows for apology after being questioned over the loan from the scandal hospital group during the Tokyo Assembly
©The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

Inose, 67, is refusing to resign and instead offered to a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Committee investigating the scandal and to find out why he did not declare the loan in his political funds report he published after his successful campaign to give up a year's salary of ¥1.3329 million (£79,000/$129,000/€94,000). 

"I'd like to give up my Governor's salary for one year as my way to take responsibility," he told the Committee.

"So, I'm thinking of proposing an ordinance enabling that to the current Assembly session."

Inose told the Committee that he felt responsible for ensuring that preparations for Tokyo 2020 run smoothly and he did not want them being compromised by the current scandal.

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