Trial of Accounting Manager of Abe Faction

Former accounting manager of Abe faction, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, pleaded guilty with the slush fund scandal, in which factions in Liberal Democratic Party disseminated secret money to their lawmakers, in the trial at Tokyo District Court on April 10th. Matsumoto also argued that he did not know about the money which some lawmakers had not passed over to the faction. It is still unclear who is responsible for the money which was kept by some lawmakers.

Matsumoto’s appearance to the court marked the first trial for ten people, three lawmakers and seven accounting managers, indicted in the slush fund scandal which has been shaking Fumio Kishida administration and LDP.

 

In the trial, the prosecutors explained the overall structure of the scandal. The factions had fundraising parties in which the member lawmakers had quota for selling its tickets. Abe faction received the sales of ticket from the lawmakers, but the faction returned the sales beyond the quota to the lawmakers as kickback. Some lawmakers even did not return the sales beyond the quota to the faction, which could be said as the reward for selling a lot of tickets. Those kickback and hidden sales were not reported as the political funds.

 

Matsumoto became the accounting manager of Abe faction in February 2019. There were some reports that he was introduced to the post by former Secretary General for LDP’s lawmakers in the House of Councillors, Hiroshige Seko. Matsumoto succeeded the routine of returning kickbacks to the lawmakers, when he took seat in 2019. The prosecutors argued that Matsumoto failed in reporting ¥1.35 billion of fund.

 

While Matsumoto mostly admitted the story of slush fund, he denied his involvement in ticket sales beyond the quota which had not been returned to the faction. He said he had not recognized the money which had not sent to the faction’s bank account. The lawyers for Matsumoto dismissed his responsibility on this part of fund in the trial.

 

It was revealed that the leaders of Abe faction once discussed abolishment of kickbacks in 2022. However, the system of distributing political fund remained, which reason has not been explained in the discussions of the Diet session. Although Matsumoto was at the discussion on the kickbacks of Abe faction, it is possible that some leaders of the faction, not Matsumoto, was responsible for the decision. But there are only three lawmakers with Abe faction who were indicted.

 

The three indicted lawmakers were not included in the leaders of Abe faction who know well about the kickback system. The discussion at Political Ethics Council, to which Kishida appeared and answered questions from the opposition party, could not make the details of this historical scandal clear. As long as the leaders of Abe faction keep silence about the handling of secret political fund, restoration of confidence on LDP politics, which Kishida wants, cannot be achieved.

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