Photo/Illutration Investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office prepare to enter the Abe faction’s office on Dec. 19. (Hikaru Uchida)

By announcing indictments in a funding scandal that has rocked the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Tokyo prosecutors effectively signaled Jan. 19 they had wound up their investigation--but that might not be the end of it.

Given the in-your-face sums of money accumulated by the LDP factions that initially went unreported, the public may yet continue to bay for blood, especially as the lawmakers facing criminal charges are not political heavyweights.

The faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accumulated the lion’s share of the funds, but none of the three lawmakers indicted or arrested ever served in a Cabinet post.

But those who did--Hirokazu Matsuno and Yasutoshi Nishimura, for instance--escaped criminal prosecution even though they once served in the faction post of secretary-general, which put them in charge of administrative matters related to the faction.

Matsuno stepped down as chief Cabinet secretary after the scandal broke and Nishimura quietly resigned as economy minister.

From the outset, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office had a high hurdle in proving the existence of a co-conspiracy.

For starters, the official in charge of accounting at the Abe faction stated that at no time did he ever inform lawmakers holding executive posts in the faction that certain amounts from the fund-raising parties were being siphoned to individuals. Nor did he mention that the amounts would escape listing in the faction’s obligatory political fund reports.

But this should come as no surprise as the practice of pooling the money had been going on for about two decades, according to sources. As a result, faction bigwigs did not even have to issue orders or instructions--a precondition for finding them legally responsible--to underlings who knew all along what to do about not including such funds in the reports.

In the past, aides to lawmakers have been found guilty of improper reporting of political funds, but their bosses were always exonerated due to a lack of evidence showing they gave direct orders to break the law.

Prosecutors also used a rule of thumb in deciding which lawmakers to go after.

They knew that around 100 members of the Abe faction, including a few who are no longer lawmakers, received sums of money from the accumulated “slush fund.” But for the most part, the amounts were paltry.

So, prosecutors only homed in on lawmakers who failed to report more than 30 million yen ($202,000) in “kickbacks” from the Abe faction.

A former aide to Abe was summarily indicted in December 2020 for failing to report about 30 million yen in income received from sales of tickets to hotel receptions held on the eve of cherry blossom viewing parties in Tokyo hosted by Abe.

As a result, only three Abe faction members were indicted or arrested in the latest fund-raising party scandal. Top faction officials seem to be in the clear, for now, but there is still a way for public opinion to enter the picture.

Prosecution inquest panels could be asked to review the latest decision to not indict and decide if prosecutors should have proceeded differently.

If they again decide not to indict, another prosecution inquest panel could take up the matter and if a decision to indict is then handed down, court-appointed lawyers would serve as prosecutors to try the case.

(This article was written by Kae Kawashima, Takashi Uematsu, Hikaru Yokoyama and Koichi Fujimaki.)

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