Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers questions from reporters about his campaign-finance report on Nov. 24. (Tsubasa Setoguchi)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Nov. 24 acknowledged irregularities in his campaign-finance report for the Lower House election last year and vowed to ensure that such errors would not happen again.

“I have confirmed that the entries for some receipts were insufficient,” Kishida told reporters at the prime minister’s office.

An online article published by the weekly Shukan Bunshun magazine on Nov. 22 said Kishida’s office submitted 270 receipts to the Hiroshima prefectural election administration committee for his campaign-finance report after the election in October 2021.

But the purposes for 98 of the receipts were left blank, and 141 entries did not mention who made the payments, the article said.

The magazine pointed out a possible breach of the Public Offices Election Law, which obliges candidates to provide details of all payments made during a campaign, including receipts, amount paid and purpose of the payment.

Kishida said although his report listed how the funds were spent, some of the receipts had blank entries.

He said he was told that a treasurer responsible for the report failed to confirm whether the receipts and the entries were handled properly.

“I told staff at my office to prevent a recurrence,” he said.

The prime minister said he will consult officials at the election committee and update the report.

He also denied reports that he might reshuffle his Cabinet and the executive lineup of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party toward the year-end or at the beginning of 2023.

“As far as I am concerned, I am not considering it at all,” Kishida said. “I need to focus on Diet affairs now since there is a slew of political challenges to tackle toward the end of next month.”

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