Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomes guests to the cherry blossom viewing event held in April 2019 at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo. (Pool)

Major beverage maker Suntory Holdings Ltd. offered free alcoholic drinks at hotel receptions for Shinzo Abe’s constituents when he was prime minister--possibly breaching the law governing political contributions from businesses, according to an expert.

The revelation comes from a review of court records and statements from closed criminal cases, as well as from an inquiry posed to the company by The Asahi Shimbun.

Under the Political Fund Control Law, businesses and organizations can only make donations to political parties and the parties’ designated political fund managing organizations--not to other political groups, including support groups.

Tomoaki Iwai, professor emeritus of politics at Nihon University, said the offer of free drinks could constitute a breach of the law as Suntory Holdings offered them to Abe’s support group, which hosted the hotel receptions.

“The Abe side should explain the circumstances,” he said.

Hiroyuki Haikawa, a former state-paid aide to Abe, received a summary indictment for failing to list about 30.22 million yen ($236,000) in payments related to annual events in Tokyo in political fund reports from 2016 to 2019.

Haikawa paid 1 million yen in fines, thus avoiding an open trial.

He headed Abe’s support group, which served as host of the hotel receptions held on the eve of the government-funded cherry blossom viewing parties given by Abe as an official function.

The receptions were held at a Tokyo hotel from 2013 to 2019 for Abe’s supporters in his constituency in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Participants were charged 5,000 yen.

The sum of 30.22 million yen included about 7.08 million yen that Abe’s organization paid to settle the cost of attending, covering the difference between the lower reception fees and the actual costs for the receptions.

The Asahi Shimbun studied files from Haikawa’s case, made available for the public based on the finalized criminal trial document law concerning closed cases.

Files on the banquets, produced by a Tokyo hotel where the parties were held from 2017 to 2019, state that 382 bottles of whisky, wine and other alcoholic drinks were brought into the venue.

The files listed Suntory Holdings and its phone number as the provider.

A public relations official with Suntory Holdings admitted in an interview that the company offered its products for free over four years from 2016.

The official said the value of the products the company provided each year between 2017 and 2019 was roughly 150,000 yen ($1,170).

“Abe’s office let us know when the parties would be held,” the official said. “We offered our products for free because large gatherings are a good opportunity to promote them.”

Suntory Holdings President Takeshi Niinami has served as a member of the government’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy since 2014, when Abe was in office.

But the official declined to comment when asked about any possible connection between being a member of a key policy-making panel while also being the supplier of free drinks at parties attended by Abe’s political supporters.

The court documents showed that an aide to Abe at his Tokyo office said during questionings by Tokyo prosecutors that he and his colleagues tried to “cut costs for hotel receptions by bringing alcohol in from outside and serving fewer dishes.”

The aide said they were aware that having Abe’s organization covering the difference would violate the Public Offices Election Law, which prohibits donations to constituents.

Abe’s support group and other organizations related to Abe did not mention donations from Suntory Holdings in their political fund reports.

Abe’s office said on May 30 that it had sincerely cooperated with prosecutors when it was under investigation and that a fine was imposed as a result.

It also said the political fund reports have been modified where necessary.

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