Secret Party Money of Chief Cabinet Secretary

The wave of money scandal reached the core of Fumio Kishida administration. Asahi Shimbun reported on Friday that Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno is suspected to have been receiving secret money amounting ¥10 million from Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai, or Abe faction, in Liberal Democratic Party for recent five years. Matsuno is refusing to explain about it. CCS is the spokesman of the Cabinet who holds press conferences in the Official Residence of Prime Minister every day. If Matsuno does not answer to the questions of journalists, he is not fit for the position.

According to Asahi’s report, Matsuno is suspected to have received ¥10 million or more from Abe faction between 2018 and 2022, which was not recorded on each of the political fund reports of the faction or Matsuno’s individual fund control organization.

 

It has already been reported that Abe faction has a system of distributing money to its members. When it has a fundraising party, the faction poses quota of selling tickets to its members. The quota varies depending on the career or post of each member. If a member achieved the quota, the sales become the revenue of the faction, and the amount is recorded on the report. If a member sold ticket more than the quota, the surplus is returned to the member and not recorded on any report.

 

Abe faction is suspected to have been using that secret money for political activities of its members escaping legal obligation of reporting. The Political Funds Control Act demands any political organization to report about the income of ticket sales of fundraising party, which amounts to ¥200 thousand or more for a buyer. ¥10 million for Matsuno is supposed to be that kind of reward for his ticket sales.

 

Receiving accusations from a professor studying political money, Special Investigation Department of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office began investigation on the secret money of the factions in LDP. The amount of the secret money would reportedly be over ¥100 million for these five years. Not only Abe faction, Shisui-kai (Nikai faction) is also suspected to have distributed that kind of secret money.

 

In the daily press conferences of CCS this week, a number of questions rose from journalists on the issue of secret money of the factions in LDP. Matusno has not been answering the questions, raising his own definition that the conference was for dealing with the issue of the government, not for personal issues. But persons consist of a government, and a personal issue can be a part of governmental issues. Matsuno has been the secretary general of Abe faction between 2019 and 2021. The correspondents’ club submitted a request to Matsuno to explain about the money.

 

Kishida also did not answer the questions of the opposition parties on the issue in the discussion in the Committee on Budget of the Diet, arguing that his answer might affect the investigation of the prosecutors office. Article 62 of Constitution of Japan vests both Houses of the Diet the right to “conduct investigations in relation to government.” Article 66 says that the Cabinet shall be collectively responsible to the Diet. No provision allows Prime Minister the right not to answer questions related to the government. Kishida needs to clarify how the money has been used in LDP.

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