The arrest of Lower House member Yoshitaka Ikeda was an “emergency measure” to prevent the lawmaker from further destroying evidence in a funding scandal that has rocked the Japanese political world, investigative sources said.

Ikeda, 57, and Kazuhiro Kakinuma, 45, an aide to the lawmaker, were arrested on Jan. 7 on suspicion of submitting false political fund reports.

Prosecutors also suspect Ikeda’s office was engaged in a cover-up, and that Ikeda may have instructed his aides to destroy evidence, the sources said.

Investigators shared the view that Ikeda was involved in “considerable malignance,” and an emergency decision was made to arrest the pair, the sources said.

“The arrests were a snap decision,” a senior prosecutor said.

Ikeda chairs a political fund management organization called Ikeda Reimei-kai. Kakinuma oversees accounting for the organization.

Ikeda and Kakinuma are suspected of failing to report a total of 48.26 million yen ($334,000) that Reimei-kai received from the Abe faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022.

The incorrect income and expenditure reports of Reimei-kai are a suspected violation of the Political Fund Control Law.

Most of the Abe faction’s 99 members are believed to have received money from a slush fund created through sales of tickets to the faction’s fund-raising parties.

The amounts that each of these members apparently failed to report as revenue between 2018 and 2022 varied from tens of thousands of yen to over 50 million yen, according to sources close to the investigation.

In general, prosecutors indict suspects for trial in cases of unreported funds when the amount is 100 million yen or more.

The also arrest suspects who are believed to be involved in “outstanding malignancy,” such as destroying evidence or preparing to flee.

In the latest scandal, Abe faction members who failed to report the funds were expected to receive summary indictments and fines, even those who received the largest amounts.

But Ikeda, who received the second-largest amount, corrected his income and expenditure reports on his own in early December without informing the faction, the sources said.

At that time, the faction was cooperating with Tokyo prosecutors to finalize the amounts that each member had received, according to the sources.

The lawmaker also refused to give detailed explanations when interviewed voluntarily by prosecutors, the sources said.

Prosecutors in December searched the offices of the Abe faction and the Nikai faction in the party over suspected incorrect fund reports.

Investigators decided to search Ikeda’s office in the Diet members’ building and other locations related to the politician on Dec. 27.

But even at this point, prosecutors were not planning to arrest Ikeda, the sources said.

According to the sources, an analysis of the seized items in the searches indicated that Ikeda’s office had intentionally destroyed or discarded data and materials related to the scandal.

Prosecutors also believed the suspected cover-up was directed by Ikeda, and that such concealment activities had continued even after the searches of his residence and office, they said.

The arrest was made on a Sunday, which is extremely unusual in cases handled by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Department.

Prosecutors face a tight schedule determining the flow of money in the faction previously led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was fatally shot in July 2022.

The ordinary Diet session opens in late January, and lawmakers cannot be arrested when parliament is in session.

MONEY-COLLECTING ABILITY

Before entering politics, Ikeda had succeeded his father as president of a chemical company.

In 2006, Ikeda became president of Junior Chamber International Japan, an influential nonprofit organization.

After meeting Abe, who was chief Cabinet secretary at the time, Ikeda began to aspire to become a politician.

He was first elected to the Lower House in 2012, representing the Aichi No. 3 constituency, which covers part of Nagoya.

Ikeda later said, looking back on that election, “I have adored and revered Abe-sensei, and I was given his proclamation, ‘Become a politician.’”

However, Ikeda has not stood on solid political ground.

In the 2014, 2017 and 2021 elections, he was elected through proportional representation, representing the Tokai bloc, not in the more prestigious single-seat constituencies.

But one outstanding characteristic of Ikeda has been his ability to collect money, according to sources.

Kakinuma, who was stationed in Ikeda’s Nagoya office, handled accounting for the lawmaker’s political organization.

For the Abe faction’s annual fund-raising parties, Ikeda’s Diet office in Tokyo sent bundles of tickets to his Nagoya office.

The Abe faction is believed to have assigned ticket sales quotas to each member that varied depending on their tenure in the Diet and position in the faction and LDP.

Sales exceeding the quotas were pooled into the slush fund and later returned to the member lawmakers, the sources said.

Kakinuma apparently also assigned ticket sales quotas to other aides of Ikeda.

The aides made extensive use of Ikeda’s Junior Chamber International Japan connections and sold the fund-raising tickets to a wide range of companies and organizations, the sources said.

The sales far exceeded Ikeda’s quotas assigned by the faction.

A company executive in the Tokai region said he had bought five to 10 tickets, each for 20,000 yen, every year through Kakinuma.

After the arrests, the executive said furiously: “That’s not what was promised. I feel betrayed.”

He said he thought sales of the party tickets would be used to benefit the faction, and that Kakinuma had emphasized Ikeda’s relationship with Abe in his sales pitch.

“Had I known they would be returned to Ikeda, there would have been no point in buying them,” the executive said.

In December, a report surfaced about the large amount of money Ikeda had received from the faction. Some in the lawmaker’s office questioned him about the use of the money.

But, according to the sources, Ikeda told them, “You don’t need to know anything about it.”

A person involved in Ikeda’s local support organization called Kakinuma several times after the scandal surfaced.

When the aide finally picked up the phone, the supporter asked for an explanation.

Kakinuma only replied, “I can’t say anything,” the supporter said.

The supporter continued: “The issue of politics and money must be explained properly. You can’t just walk away.”

(This article was written by Takashi Uematsu, Hikaru Yokoyama, Tomomi Terasawa, Yuri Murakami and Wataru Netsu.)