Photo/Illutration The Diet building in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party lavished 37.9 billion yen ($272 million) to finance the political activities of its lawmakers over 20 years through 2021, or more than 80 percent of the total 45.6 billion yen spent by major political parties during the period, figures show.

Of the 38-billion-yen figure, around 5 billion yen, the largest amount among individual LDP lawmakers, went to Toshihiro Nikai, who served as the party’s secretary-general for a record five years from 2016.

The findings came from a government report on political funds released by the internal affairs ministry on Nov. 25 and a calculation of figures in published reports for 2002 through 2020.

Under the Political Fund Control Law, political organizations are required to publish reports on political funds to keep their “political activity” under constant surveillance and scrutiny by the public.

But the law does not oblige individual lawmakers to disclose how money provided by their political parties under funds for political activity is spent.

Critics contend the setup is badly flawed and have called for an urgent overhaul.

Not obliging lawmakers to disclose how funds transferred by the party were spent constitutes a gaping loophole in the Political Fund Control Law, according to Tomoaki Iwai, professor emeritus of politics at Nihon University.

“The law needs to be overhauled,” he said. “Hundreds of millions of yen are provided to politicians in a manner that does not allow voters to check how the money was used, and that is out of touch with public sentiment.”

Trailing the LDP was the former Democratic Party of Japan, which spent about 4.45 billion yen between 2006 and 2015 and the former Democratic Party, which succeeded the DPJ and spent 1.04 billion yen between 2016 and 2017.

Nikai topped on the list of lawmakers to whom large sums were paid, at 5.06 billion yen. Of that figure, 4.77 billion yen was paid on a total of 160 occasions while he was the LDP secretary-general from August 2016 to September 2021.

The sum of each payment varied from 300,000 yen to 72.1 million yen during that period.

Nikai was followed by Sadakazu Tanigaki, former president of the LDP, at 2.31 billion yen, and Shinzo Abe, a former LDP prime minister, at 2.05 billion yen. The bulk of payments to Tanigaki and Abe were made when they served as secretaries-general of the party.

But there is no way of knowing under the existing system how precisely the funds were used.

The office of the LDP secretary-general said in a statement that the secretary-general provides funds to lawmakers to bolster the party strength, craft policy measures and conduct studies on behalf of the party. The amount provided varies, depending on the person’s position in the party, it added.

The post of secretary-general carries enormous influence. The holder is responsible for overall party affairs, including allocating funds and picking candidates who can run on the party ticket in national elections.

One former LDP secretary-general said he used the money to help candidates struggling in national elections--those whose chances of being elected were 50:50 or lacking funds for campaigning.

He recalled bringing 2 million yen in cash to a candidate when he traveled to give a campaign speech on the individual’s behalf.

Some lawmakers use the money to conduct independent polls to assess how they are faring prior to an election, according to officials close to the LDP.

A senior LDP official said each faction of the party receives political activity funds through the secretary-general.

“Funds are also provided to faction members during summer and winter to finance their political activities,” the official said, suggesting the money serves as a lifeline when faction leaders are facing difficulties gathering funds for other members.

Some LDP legislators asserted that political activity funds were partly used to implement measures to deal with the opposition bloc.

(This article was written by Takashi Togo and Yuji Harada.)

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