Shimomura in the Diet Hearing

One of the former leaders of Abe faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, Hakubun Shimomura, appeared at the hearing on kickback fund scandal in the Lower House Committee on Budget on May 27th. Denying instruction for resuming the kickback fund, Shimomura admitted that he suggested a fact that there were some requests in the faction hoping to resume it. It is likely that the illegal funding, which had once been abolished, was resumed with Shimomura’s “reporting” of some voices in the faction. 

The kickback fund had been a usual practice in Abe faction. A member who sold tickets of the faction’s fundraising party receives the return for the sales beyond quota. It was made in secret without reporting to the government by the faction or each lawmaker. The secrecy constructed violation of Political Funds Control Act. Although the practice was abolished in April 2022, it was resumed after a meeting of the faction leaders in August 2022.

 

Shimomura, who lost his seat of the House of Representatives in election last October, is one of the leaders in the meeting. The accounting manager of the faction, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, has told that he was instructed by one of those leaders to resume the kickback in the meeting at which the resumption was decided. Shimomura denied his instruction and told that resumption was not decided in the meeting.

 

Matsumoto indicated that the leader who made that instruction was no longer a member of the Diet. That condition was applied only to Shimomura or Ryu Shionoya, former chairman of Abe faction, among the leaders in the meeting.

 

In the hearing of Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, Shimomura explained that he told Matsumoto about some requests in the faction in late June and late July 2022. “I had no intention to demand resumption of kickback. If it was regarded as an instruction, it would be my moral fault,” said Shimomura in the committee.

 

The fact is simple. Shimomura told Matsumoto about frustrations of faction members. Matsumoto received it as instruction to resume the kickback. Shimomura thought that he told it to Matsumoto in a way not demanding resumption of the kickback. It is not unusual for two people to have different perception about their conversation. In the testimony at Lower House Political Ethics Council in March 2024, Shimomura said that he did not know at all how the kickback had been resumed.

 

In short, Shimomura and Matsumoto are pushing responsibility on each other. At the time, Shimomura was a veteran lawmaker and Matsumoto was not more than a manager of the faction. It was obvious that Shimomura had larger political power than Matsumoto. It is understandable that Matsumoto felt pressured by Shimomura. But, the kickback was actually resumed after August 2022.

 

The scandal caused serious defeat of the LDP in the election of October 2024. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba failed in implementing his promise to settle the issue of political donation from companies and organizations. Slow progress in political reform keeps on disturbing Ishiba administration to regain power.

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