Who Restarted Kickbacks Is Still Missing

One of the “Five Guys” of former Abe faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, Hiroshige Seko, appeared in a hearing of Committee on Budget in the Upper House. About a meeting on August 5th, 2022, by leaders of Abe faction, in which resumption of kickback system of ticket sales of faction’s fundraising party was supposedly decided, Seko contradicted recognition of former accounting manager of the faction. It is still unclear when and who decided reintroduction of illegal management of political fund, which caused a great scandal in the leading party. 

Abe faction became an epicenter of the slush fund scandal, in which the faction secretly returned the sales of ticket, beyond allocated quota, of the faction’s fundraising party to each lawmaker without recording on the funds report. This is what is called “kickback system.” Since it was revealed in late 2023, the LDP and both Houses of Diet accumulated investigation on the scandal. However, two big questions still remain: who did start the system, and how was the system resumed in spite of decision of abolishing that system by former chairman of the faction, Shinzo Abe, who died a month before the meeting?

 

Former accounting manager of Abe faction, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, testified in a hearing at Committee on Budget in the Lower House in February that the resumption of kickback system was decided in the meeting on August 5th, 2022, to which four faction leaders attended. Those leaders were Seko, Ryu Shionoya, Yasutoshi Nishimura and Hakubun Shimomura. While Shionoya agreed with Matsumoto’s story, other three denied it.

 

In the hearing of Upper House’s committee, Seko reiterated his recognition. “It was a consensus that returning cash could not be made,” said Seko. Seko explained that the meeting was closed with a conclusion that the sales beyond quota would be returned to each member through purchasing ticket of the member’s individual fundraising party by the faction. Seko argued that he had sent Matsumoto a message that listed the schedule of fundraising parties of lawmakers four days after the meeting.

 

However, the kickback system was certainly resumed thereafter. That is why the scandal broke out. Seko did not tell who restarted the kickback system. According to the testimony of Matsumoto, it was “former lawmaker” who proposed resumption of the kickback system, effectively meaning Shionoya or Shimomura. Seko also did not tell his idea about who originally had begun that kickback system.

 

Political Ethics Council of the Upper House finished hearings from 27 LDP lawmakers involved in the scandal. Their explanations were mostly about their ignorance in management of kickback fund, not providing with information on the crucial points of the scandal. As politics focuses on Japan’s countermeasures against Trump’s tariffs on Japanese products, the lawmakers are less interested in the scandal of LDP that shook Japanese politics entire last year.

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