Kakizawa Arrested after Competition

The Special Investigation Department of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrested a member of the House of Representatives, former State Minister of Justice, Mito Kakizawa, with suspicion of violating Public Office Election Act on Thursday. Kakizawa reportedly involved in distributing bribe in February to the members of the local assembly in Koto Metropolitan District of Tokyo related to its mayoral election. Dependence on money and traditional structure of internal competition of Liberal Democratic Party are in the background.

A son of former LDP Representative, Koji Kakizawa, Mito Kakizawa started his political career as a member of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, affiliated with Democratic Party of Japan, in 2001. He ran for HR election in 2009 and secured a seat as a proportional representative of Your Party. Kakizawa changed his affiliation to several opposition parties, including Innovation Party, and joined LDP in 2021.

 

Kakizawa lost twice out of five elections in Tokyo 15th district, located in Koto Metropolitan District. As a member of opposition parties for over a decade, Kakizawa had been an enemy of LDP people in Koto. After joining LDP, Kakizawa had to improve his relationship with local LDP members to maintain his seat in HR.

 

One of the political activities of Kakizawa the public prosecutors focused on was his support for Yayoi Kimura, who won the mayoral election in this April. Kakizawa recommended Kimura to run an internet ad for her election campaign, which was illegal. Recognizing his responsibility for inappropriate instruction, Kakizawa resigned as State Minister of Justice in October.

 

The investigation against Kakizawa did not stop there. The public prosecutors found that Kakizawa had distributed some money to the local assembly members in Koto. While Public Office Election Act prohibits donation of lawmakers in their own electoral district, one can donate some amount of money as “consolation” for local politician’s political activities. But once the consolation was made for asking votes for someone, it would be a bribe.

 

Although he argued it had been “consolation” Kakizawa was arrested with suspect of distributing ¥1 million to five assembly members of Koto as a reward for supporting Kimura in the mayoral election. Kakizawa did not have a good relationship with Kimura’s predecessor, Takaaki Yamazaki, who had been a long-time supporter for LDP as the mayor of Koto. While Yamazaki’s son ran for the election in April, it is supposed that Kakizawa tried to defeat Yamazaki family by supporting Kimura.

 

As same as in the case in Hiroshima, in which former Minister of Justice distributed bribe to local politicians and found guilty, Kakizawa’s case once again showed LDP’s dependence on money to win the election. But the border between bribe and “consolation” is not clear, generating obscure donation in local communities. Taking opportunity for revisioning political ethics along with scandal of LDP factions, the lawmakers need to discuss about the law on local political money.

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