According to the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun reports on the 3rd, the Tokyo District Prosecutors’ Office believes that more than 10 lawmakers sold party rights exceeding the quota at Abe’s political fundraising event (party) for five years between 2018 and 2022, and then took over the quota to make it slush funds.
Initially, the investigation began with accusations that the amount of fundraising was not properly listed and omitted in the fund report related to political fundraising events (parties) held by major factions within the Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan’s Political Fund Act stipulates that individuals and organizations who purchase more than 200,000 yen worth of “party tickets” at events (parties) held to raise political funds must include their names and amounts in the balance of funds report, but they did not follow it properly.
However, during the prosecution’s investigation, allegations emerged that Abe’s faction did not simply omit the list, but returned the money raised by its lawmakers beyond the party ticket sales quota and turned it into slush funds.
It was investigated that the money in question was not listed in the accounting documents of political organizations for each lawmaker, as well as the Abe faction’s political funds accounting report.
The Abe faction is the largest faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, and is powerful enough to have several cabinet ministers in the current cabinet, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, Economy, Industry Minister Yastoshi Nishimura, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Ichiro Miyashita, and Secretary General Junji Suzuki.
The amount of money that Abe’s faction has made slush funds over the past five years is worth more than 100 million yen.
Initially, major factions of the Liberal Democratic Party explained that if several lawmakers sold party tickets to the same group or individual and exceeded the standard of 200,000 yen, they were omitted due to simple office errors.
However, in addition to the Abe faction, the “Nikai faction,” led by former secretary-general Toshiro Nikai, is also accused of returning the excess income from the quota to the lawmakers during a political fundraising event, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
However, the Nikai faction did not reflect the excess quota in the area of the factional political fund balance report, but unlike the Abe faction, it was included in the expenditure and reflected in the rebate’s accounting of political organizations.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida does not belong to the Abe or Nikai faction, but is the head of the so-called Kishida faction.
When asked by reporters about the LDP’s alleged slush funds in the United Arab Emirates on the 2nd (local time), he said, “I’m very sorry to be suspicious of the people,” and added, “I’ll think about the party’s response while grasping the situation.”
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
