A senior leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Abe faction denied involvement in keeping part of proceeds from fund-raising parties off the books for years, shedding little new light on the scandal.

“I did not have any knowledge about (funds) being kept unreported,” Hiroshige Seko, former secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus, told a hearing of the upper chamber’s Deliberative Council on Political Ethics on March 14.

LDP factions are believed to have returned to their lawmakers money from the sales of tickets to the factions’ fund-raising parties that exceeded the quotas assigned to them.

But the Abe faction has apparently funneled back to Upper House members all money gained from sales of fund-raising tickets in the years when they are running for re-election.

“I do not know who decided, but a rule was in place that ticket sales quotas are not assigned to Upper House members who are up for re-election,” Seko said.

But Seko said he was not part of the special arrangement.

“I learned about it from media reports,” he said. “It appears that it was the way that the rule was applied according to what I heard from (other) Upper House members.”

In 2022, the Abe faction decided to abolish the practice of funneling part of revenues from party ticket sales that exceeded quotas back to member lawmakers, then retracted that policy and eventually scrapped the practice, according to sources.

The decision-making process remained a mystery even after Abe faction leaders spoke before the Lower House’s Deliberative Council on Political Ethics on Feb. 29 and March 1.

Seko, counted among the Abe faction’s five senior leaders, provided little information about these developments during the hearing on March 14.

In April 2022, Abe faction leaders decided to abolish the practice at the behest of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who headed the eponymous faction at the time.

Sources said faction leaders discussed a review of that policy in August the same year, a month after Abe was shot to death while campaigning for a candidate in Nara. 

The policy was retracted, and the faction returned revenues in excess of quotas to member lawmakers concerning sales of tickets to its party held in 2022.

Seko admitted to attending the meetings in April and August 2022 but offered few clues as to how the practice was once scrapped and then reinstated.

He said Abe instructed faction leaders at the meeting in April to abolish the practice of funneling revenues back to member lawmakers.

At the meeting in August, faction leaders were asked what to do with lawmakers who sold more party tickets than their quotas, he said.

Seko denied having played any role in reviving the practice, saying, “I do not know why things were restored to the way they had been before.”

At a meeting around the end of 2022, faction leaders decided to end the practice for the faction’s fund-raising party to be held the following year, according to sources.

Seko told the hearing that he was not informed of that decision at the time.

Seko failed to list 15.42 million yen ($104,000) on political fund reports over the five years through 2022.

Shoji Nishida and Seiko Hashimoto, both Upper House members belonging to the Abe faction, also attended the hearings of the upper chamber’s ethics panel on March 14.

Nishida has argued that faction leaders should explain how the practice of funneling revenues from party ticket sales to member lawmakers has continued unabated for many years.

“I am not fully convinced that no one knows about it,” he told the hearing. “We all want to be told.”

Asked if he thinks Seko has fulfilled his responsibility to explain at the ethics panel, Nishida said, "I cannot hardly believe so." 

Hashimoto said she learned "more than 10 years ago" that the Abe faction was returning part of the revenues from party ticket sales to member lawmakers. 

But she said she believed that the funds were appropriately dealt with at her office.

Hashimoto also said her secretary received a substantially larger amount of refunds  than usual in 2019, when she ran for re-election.