Suspect on Secret Money of Factions

The secret money raised by parties is highlighted as the investigation by public prosecutors proceeds. Newspapers reported on Friday that the biggest faction of ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Seiwa Policy Study Group (Abe faction), is suspected to have been distributing secret income from fundraising parties to its members, which would amount more than one hundred million yen between 2018 and 2022. Most party tickets were sold to the business sectors, which have been recognizes as a kind of donation. Here’s a question: Why Abe faction did not report the money?

Asahi Shimbun reported the issue as the top news of Friday. It revealed the each faction in LDP holds fundraising party once a year. The price of a ticket is ¥20 thousand. The lawmakers affiliated to the faction are requested to sell the party ticket to his/her supporters. Those ticket sales go to the faction. That is the basic system of party income of each faction.

 

Abe faction imposed a quota of ticket sales for each member. If a member sold more than the quota, the surplus will be sent back to the member. The more a member sells the tickets, the more he/she will receive the reward. The money will be used for political activities of each lawmaker, such as for election campaign.

 

The point is that the surplus of ticket sales sent back to each lawmaker was not recorded in the political funds report of Abe faction. While each lawmaker also has its own organization for controlling political money, those organizations of members of Abe faction did not report the money sent back from the faction.

 

The Political Funds Control Act demands a political organization to report the name of ticket buyers and the amount of each sale, if the amount of purchase exceeds ¥200 thousand. The Special Investigation Division of Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office is inquiring missing party income of five major factions in LDP, which is supposed to amount ¥40 million. The money paid back to the members of Abe faction may not be caused by some mistake, but secret spendings of political money.

 

The Chairman of Abe faction, a member of House of Representatives Ryu Shionoya, admitted on Thursday that the faction had been sending back the surplus to the members. But he later backed off his words, because he had not confirmed the facts. Former secretary general of Abe faction, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, did not answer the question on whether he had been involved in the money sent back to the faction members.

 

Although fundraising parties have been targeted by the criticisms against unclear relationship between money and politics, no obvious evidence that the income of those parties was hidden and used for political activities has been discovered. The investigation of the public prosecutors may reveal long-time secret in fundraising parties and lead to fix the loophole of the law.

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