Another Secret Funds Scandal on Ishiba

Weekly Bunshun magazine reported an interview to a supporter of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who revealed his purchase of ticket for Ishiba’s fundraising party. According to the research of Bunshun, the purchase was not described Ishiba’s political funds report, which may constitute illegal donation through fundraising party ticket. Ishiba explained that such exchange of money as reported had not made between he and the supporter. 

According to the story of Bunshun, Ishiba came to know with a man running his own business in Tokyo, who was from Tottori prefecture as same as Ishiba, in early time in his political career. The supporter introduced Ishiba his son, Takahiro Shimone who succeeded father’s business. Shimone told Bunshun that he bought Ishiba’s fundraising party tickets. They are 300 tickets with the price of 20 thousand yen each, which amounts to be 6 million yen. The son calculated that he had donated over 30 million yen to Ishiba for ten years.

 

Political Funds Control Act demands politicians to report the name of the person who bought the tickets beyond 200 thousand yen. Bunshun did not find name of Shimone on Ishiba’s funds report in recent twenty years. Shimone argued that he rented an office in Ikebukuro district of Tokyo to Ishiba.

 

Bunshun also revealed that Shimone accompanied with Ishiba’s presidential campaign trail of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2008. When Ishiba was Chairman of LDP Policy Research Council in 2009, Shimone allegedly handed Ishiba 1 million yen in the chairman’s room in LDP headquarters in 2009. Bunshun doubts that Ishiba has continuously received secret donation from Shimone.

 

Ishiba admitted some parts of the article to be true and dismissed others in a discussion at the Diet on May 12. To the questions of Akira Nagatsuma (CDPJ), Ishiba confessed that Shimone was with him in LDP presidential campaign in 2008 and his secretaries had used an office in Ikebukuro for a very short time.

 

On the sales of party ticket, Ishiba insisted that the father urged his acquaintances to buy the party tickets and they individually paid for the ticket respectively. Ishiba denied a possibility that the father bought all the unsold ticket. Ishiba did not remember whether Shimone visited the policy chairman’s office in LDP headquarters, not ruling out a possibility of visit the office as a guest.

 

Shimone held a press conference in the Diet on the same day. Shimone stressed that his story was true and Ishiba was making lies. “I hope Ishiba to tell the truth,” Shimone said.

 

Ishiba had been accused of his distribution of gift certificate to young LDP lawmakers in March. Another scandal over political funds may impose a major damage on Ishiba administration, which suffers from low approval rate caused by weakness of his minority government or uncontrollability of negotiation on tariffs with the U.S. Trump administration.

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