Japan’s Tokyo District Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Department has begun a mandatory investigation into the offices of the Abe faction (Seiwa Policy Research Association) and the Nikai faction (Shisui Kai) in connection with allegations that factions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have created billions of illegal political slush funds.
The Asahi Shimbun reported on the 19th that the Special Department is considering the possibility of indicting both the Abe faction and the Nikai faction.
The Special Department judged that a mandatory investigation was necessary to uncover the truth, so it dispatched dozens of investigators to each of the two factions’ offices around 10 a.m. to search and seize them.
According to officials, the two factions have been holding parties every year to raise political funds. Lawmakers belonging to factions had to sell invitations to this party as if they were selling, and sales quotas were imposed based on their history of being elected or the position they held. Invitation tickets cost around 20,000 yen (about 180,000 won) each.
The problem is that factions and lawmakers issued and sold more invitation tickets than the quota, earning excess income, but did not record this in the balance of payments report. This is a violation of the Political Fund Regulation Act, which states that political funds must be “conducted under constant public surveillance and criticism.”
Just looking at the records for the five years between 2018 and 2022, when the statute of limitations for false information applies, it is estimated that more than 500 million yen (approximately 4.5 billion won) in Abepa alone was undocumented. In Nikaipa, it appears that billions of won worth of money has not been recorded.
The special investigator believes that among the factions, the Abe faction was the most vicious in raising slush funds.
Abe faction’s political fund raising event held in Tokyo, Japan. Source: Former Defense Minister Tomomi Inada’s website. 2019 filmingThis is because the Nikai faction recorded the excess income exchanged between both factions and lawmakers as expenditure and income details, but the Abe faction did not record both factions and lawmakers. This is why suspicions were raised that kickbacks were being systematically stolen.
Since the end of the extraordinary session of the National Assembly, the authorities have been summoning lawmakers belonging to the Abe faction and conducting a random hearing investigation since the 16th. Most of the 99 lawmakers belonging to the faction are suspected of having collected slush funds.
The lawmaker believed to have raised the largest amount of illegal slush funds is Councilor Yasutada Ono, who is said to have accumulated about 50 million yen (about 460 million won).
Asahi reported that all six executives who are the main members of the faction appear to have received kickbacks.
The six Abe faction executives include former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura, who were dismissed on the 14th, Tsuyoshi Takagi, Chairman of the Government Council Countermeasures Committee, and Hiroshige Seko. It is composed of Secretary General of the Party’s Council of Councilors, Koichi Hagiuda, Chairman of the Party’s Jeongjo Committee, and former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ryu Shionoya.
Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the party, said regarding the special department’s house investigation, “It is very unfortunate that this situation has come to this.”
According to Kyodo News, Communist Party Secretary General Akira Koike said, “This is a very serious situation. “It could develop into a major scandal involving the entire Liberal Democratic Party,” he said.
Source: Donga
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