Takaichi’s Staff Rejected by Diet

One of the staffs of Sanae Takaichi Cabinet has been rejected by the House of Councillors with doubt on qualification. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary (DCCS), Kei Sato, has not work as a liaison between Prime Minister’s Office and the House, because he is known as involved in the kickback fund scandal in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). It is likely to be the matter of responsibility of who appointed him at the position. Obviously, it is Prime Minister Takaichi.

 

Sato is a member of House of Councillors with two terms from Nara electoral district, which is the home prefecture of Takaichi. As a member of firmer Abe faction in the LDP, Sato accepted the kickback fund, which was a return for ticket sales for fundraising parties, from the faction and did not report the fund as income. That amounted 3.06 million yen.

 

After being elected prime minister, Takaichi announced that she would appoint lawmakers who had been involved in kickback fund scandal to any position of her government. She then explained that those lawmakers had come through an election in which they received mandate from voters. However, Sato was not reelected in the Upper House election in July 2025, because he was not among the house members whose term was expired this year.

 

The opposition parties became doubtful that Sato could be included in the criteria for appointment laid out by Takaichi. One of the leaders of LDP in the Upper House had advised that appointment of a person such as Sato would be targeted by opposition powers in the Diet. But Takaichi did not follow that. Sato has been a close ally of Takaichi for years and worked as a staff of Takaichi’s campaign for LDP presidential election in October.

 

Among three DCCSs for a prime minister, one works as a liaison to ministries. And the rest of two are respectively in charge of each of two Houses of the Diet. Sato was expected to explain Cabinet’s activities related to the bills for current session. However, Sato has been rejected to sit as a member of government in the plenary sittings or discussion of standing committees for three weeks. The LDP abandoned Sato’s participation in current session of the Diet.

 

It is highly unusual for a DCCS not to be able to attend meetings of Diet as a member of government for weeks. Although the opposition parties demand Takaichi to explain the reason why she appointed Sato, Takaichi has not given a persuasive answer to them. “Please give him a chance to work, because he is a useful guy,” said Takaichi without explaining the reason of her appointment. She firmly rejects replacement of Sato.

 

This is a consequence of minority government. Decisions in both Houses are under control of the opposition parties in some ways. It was reported that Sato had received donation from a medical organization that had falsely received subsidy from the government related to COVID. Takaichi does not show her moral framework for transparency of political fund.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

BOJ Begins to Sell ETF

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to keep its short-term rate at 0.5 percent in its Monetary Policy Meeting on September 19 th . While it had been expected that the bank would not change the policy rate in the meeting, the meeting unanimously agreed on beginning to sell exchange-traded funds (ETF). Although the policy reflected the bank’s determination for normalizing its monetary policy, the Governor of JOB, Kazuo Ueda, predicted that it would take a hundred years to release all the ETF it possesses. While the BOJ started buying ETF, a financial product which is equivalent to investment trust, in 2010, the bank abruptly increased its quantity of purchase in 2013, under the leadership of then governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, who exchanged an accord with Shinzo Abe administration to cooperate to get rid of deflation and to achieve stable economic growth. The amount of ETF bought by the BOJ has reached 37 trillion yen.   Purchase of ETF by a central bank has been recognized as a prohibited m...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more