Major 5 Factions Suspected of 'False Reporting of Fundraising Amounts'
Opposition Party's Offensive Continues... Likely to Affect Regime Risk
The Kishida administration, whose approval ratings have been hitting rock bottom since taking power, has once again faced a risk. Allegations have emerged within Japanese politics that five factions within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) omitted or falsely recorded entries in reports during the process of collecting political funds, triggering an emergency in managing approval ratings. Not only the Kishida faction led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida but also the Abe faction, Motegi faction, and others have become subjects of investigation, which is expected to deal a significant blow to the LDP as it seeks to maintain its administration.
On the 23rd, Asahi Shimbun reported that during the previous day's House of Representatives Budget Committee session, Prime Minister Kishida faced intense attacks from opposition lawmakers regarding this issue. In response, Kishida instructed LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi to have each faction clarify the matter, and Motegi has requested the heads of each faction to respond accordingly.
This incident began when Hiroshi Kamioki, a professor at Kobe University Law School, and others filed a complaint with the prosecutors regarding the issue. Professor Kamioki is a co-representative of the civic group "Political Funds Ombudsman," which monitors the income and expenditure of political funds in Japanese politics. He raised suspicions that major LDP factions underreported approximately 40 million yen (about 350 million KRW) less than the actual income in reports related to political fundraising events from 2018 to 2021.
On the 18th, Japanese media unanimously reported that the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Department is investigating officials from five LDP factions on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Act. The five factions are Gunchikai (Kishida faction), Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai (Abe faction), Jishukai (Nikai faction), Heisei Kenkyukai (Motegi faction), and Jikokukai (Aso faction). These factions are led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister; Toshihiro Nikai, the LDP’s second-in-command; Secretary-General Motegi, who is always mentioned as a potential next prime minister; and Deputy President Taro Aso, respectively. In effect, all the real power holders of the LDP are now under scrutiny.
Japanese political parties hold events to raise political funds by selling event tickets, and the profits after deducting expenses from ticket sales are used as funds. Large-scale events that raise more than 10 million yen (about 87.1 million KRW) at once from companies or individuals are classified as "parties," and thus most political fundraising events are called political fund parties. The Political Funds Control Act mandates that the personal details and amounts paid by purchasers who pay more than 200,000 yen (about 1.74 million KRW) per party must be fully recorded in reports.
Past cases of omissions in political fund records by Japanese politicians occurred when specific companies or organizations provided amounts exceeding the legal limit per transaction. The excess amounts were split into payments of 200,000 yen or less to avoid being recorded. This method was also used to conceal the fact of receiving support from specific individuals.
Because of this, during the Budget Committee sessions starting on the 21st, incumbent ministers appeared to explain themselves in response to opposition questions. On the 21st, Yoshitaka Shindo, Secretary-General of the Heisei Kenkyukai and Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization, said in response to the Constitutional Democratic Party’s questioning, "As a member of the government, I will refrain from answering." Hirokazu Matsuno, former Secretary-General of the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai and Chief Cabinet Secretary, stated, "If corrections are necessary in the reports, each faction should check the causes on their own responsibility and take necessary measures." Prime Minister Kishida, as head of Gunchikai, explained, "We will continue efforts to ensure transparency in political funds reporting by each faction and provide detailed explanations."
The following day’s meeting was delayed by 50 minutes due to prolonged negotiations between ruling and opposition parties over demands to disclose the progress of the prosecutors’ investigation. Yoshihiko Noda, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, raised his voice, saying, "The prime minister lacks a sense of crisis. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and the LDP has structurally continued (fund omissions) until now."
The LDP claims the omissions were not intentional but clerical errors and that corrections have been completed. Secretary-General Motegi told reporters the previous afternoon, "The Motegi faction had 17 omissions between 2019 and 2021, and corrections have already been completed. We plan to introduce a system to organize purchase amounts for each party ticket buyer going forward." According to explanations from each faction, the Motegi faction had 17 cases, the Aso faction had 13 cases totaling 4.06 million yen (about 35.35 million KRW) from 2019 to 2021, and the Nikai faction had 29 cases from 2018 to 2021. The Kishida faction announced that from 2018 to 2020, six organizations had seven cases of omitted entries.
However, Asahi pointed out, "Only the Aso faction disclosed the number of omissions and the amounts." The largest faction, the Abe faction, did not express a position separately, saying, "There was no time to consult with the secretariat."
With the Kishida administration already unable to escape its lowest approval ratings and public opinion turning due to various tax increase policies, this political fund law violation allegation is expected to become another threat. The Kishida administration has already judged that dissolving the House of Representatives for a re-election within this year is impossible due to low approval ratings. Asahi reported, "This political fund issue is becoming a new spark for the administration’s troubles."
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