KYOTO--The Kyoto prefectural chapter of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is facing accusations of buying the votes of local politicians with money collected from candidates running in national elections.

But the party chapter denies any wrongdoing and said giving out money from candidates is a legitimate activity aimed at increasing the party’s strength.

A lawyer with the Kyoto branch of the Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom said the nature of the funding in question is obvious from how it was characterized in a document penned by a former party official.

“It is easily recognizable from the use of the expression ‘money laundering’ that the real aim of giving funds was for the election,” the lawyer said.

The association filed a criminal complaint against the head of the LDP’s Kyoto prefectural chapter and LDP candidates from the prefecture for the 2021 Lower House election with the Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office in February for violating the Public Offices Election Law. 

Local branches and political organizations headed by the six local LDP candidates who ran in the fall 2017 Lower House election gave anywhere from 2 million yen ($16,600) to 7 million yen to the party’s prefectural chapter, according to the chapter’s political fund reports.

A total of 24.5 million yen was handed over to the chapter about a month before the election, according to the documents.

Then, the chapter distributed 24.5 million yen, or 500,000 yen each, to its local chapters and political organizations, which are represented by 49 Kyoto prefectural and municipal assembly members affiliated with the party.

The chapter’s political fund reports listed similar cash flows for the Upper House elections in 2016 and 2019, as well as the 2014 Lower House election.

Hiroshi Ando, a former Lower House member who ran in 2012, 2014 and 2017, acknowledged in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun that he transferred funds to the prefectural chapter.

“I knew that the money would go to local assembly members,” he said, but denied that it was used to buy votes.

“It was a longstanding practice,” he said. “I had also been told by senior LDP lawmakers and staff at the prefectural chapter’s secretariat that giving money to local assembly members by way of the prefectural chapter poses no legal problems.”

The Public Offices Election Law bans candidates from giving money to voters in their constituencies, a practice called “vote buying.”

The Political Fund Control Law, however, does not restrict political organizations from giving donations to a political party, including its local chapters--even during an election campaign period. Nor does it restrict parties from donating to political groups during an election.

“The Constitution guarantees freedom in political activities for a political group and that principle should be respected as much as possible,” said an official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

As first reported in February by the monthly magazine Bungei Shunju, the former chief of the prefectural chapter’s secretariat described the flow of money between candidates and local assembly members as political “money laundering” in a 2014 handover document written for his successor.

The former chief admitted to producing the handover report when asked by The Asahi Shimbun, which has also obtained the document.

The man said it was a “personal note for his successor,” not an official internal document.

The person who took over his job declined to be interviewed by the Asahi.

The handover report said the “expenses for activities funded by each candidate must be provided to members of the prefectural and municipal assembly after an election campaign strategy meeting is held.”

“It is indeed a roundabout approach, but candidates cannot directly give (money) to assemblypersons, as doing so is deemed as vote buying under the Public Offices Election Law,” it added. “So, the prefectural chapter provides the money to them. It is sort of money laundering.”

Shoji Nishida, an LDP Upper House lawmaker who heads the Kyoto prefectural chapter, denied having any knowledge of the handover report on his YouTube channel in February.

“I have never seen nor heard anything about it,” he said. “I have inquired with staff at the chapter about it, but its existence has not been confirmed.”

Hideo Tanaka, an LDP member of the Kyoto prefectural assembly who serves as the secretary-general of the party’s prefectural chapter, said he has received the funds before, but said they were used for “publishing promotional pamphlets for candidates and renting campaign vehicles.”

Tanaka said there should be new rules on the timing of giving out such funds to dispel doubts about what the money is for.

Nobuo Gohara, a former investigator with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, said it is extremely difficult to expose suspected bribes under the judicial system.

“In many cases, offering donations to a political organization close to an election seems like seeking favors in connection with electoral activities,” he said. “But determining whether the act constitutes vote buying is a tough call because it is associated with the subjective views of those involved.”

Gohara called for a blanket ban on donations by candidates in the lead up to the election to stem the murky flow of money.