Indicted and Not Indicted

The Special Investigation Division of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office wrapped up its investigation on the slush fund scandal in Liberal Democratic Party on Friday. They indicted some lawmakers with Abe faction and managers who were in charge of accounting of three factions. To take responsibility for eroding confidence on politics, three leaders, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, announced that they would dissolve their own factions. That does not mean LDP’s reform not to repeat the same kind of scandal in the future, anyway.

According to the news reports, the public prosecutors indicted two lawmakers with Abe faction, Yasutada Ono and Yaichi Tanigawa, with charges of violating Political Funds Control Act, which were failing to report funds returned from the faction as the sales of fundraising parties. While Ono was indicted in house with his denial of involvement in the illegal activities, Tanigawa was reported as admitting the charge on him, given summary indictment. The both left LDP and Tanigawa announced his resignation as a lawmaker.

 

The prosecutors also indicted accounting managers of three factions: Abe, Nikai and Kishida. The charge on them was failing in reporting the income of fundraising parties and spendings to return the income back to the lawmakers. Total sum of the failures amounted to ¥1.3 billion for Abe faction, ¥380 million for Nikai faction and ¥30 million for Kishida faction.

 

It looked strange that the leading lawmakers of Abe faction were not indicted. While they were interviewed by the prosecutors, the evidence for the leaders to be involved in the failure in reporting the funds was not found. Although the prosecutors realized that former head of Abe faction, Shinzo Abe, decided to give up that “kickback” to the members, the decision was overturned after Abe died in July, 2022. The leaders and the accounting manager argued that it had been up to the accounting manager whether the funds would be reported or not.

 

The prosecutors have previously arrested a lawmaker, Yoshitaka Ikeda. The line whether they arrest or indict a lawmaker or not was drawn at ¥30 million. The amount of failed funds report of each of the leaders of Abe faction did not exceed that threshold. It is said that the line was established when the prosecutors indicted former secretary of Abe in the scandal over Cherry Blossom Festival in 2020. If that is true, the prosecutors have to explain the difference between the threshold.

 

Following an announcement of Kishida to dissolve his faction, the leader of Nikai faction, Toshihiro Nikai, declared the dissolution of his faction in the faction assembly on Friday. Abe faction also decided to dissolve in their general assembly on Friday. But, Aso faction and Motegi faction, which have not been charged with the slush funds, are reluctant to dissolve themselves. LDP seems to be divided between indicted and non-indicted by a sudden decision by Prime Minister Kishida.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more