Photo/Illutration Megumi Hirose, an Upper House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, returns to her home in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward on July 30. (Koichi Fujimaki)

If a lawmaker pockets the state-financed salary of a Diet member’s secretary for personal use, the act constitutes an egregious embezzlement of public funds.

Despite previous arrests and prosecutions of legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties for such crimes, and even legislative amendments made in response to those scandals, a similar case of fraud has yet again emerged. This astonishing new scandal requires a thorough investigation.

The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office’s special investigation unit searched the office of Liberal Democratic Party Upper House member Megumi Hirose and other related venues over suspicions she may have defrauded the government of one of her secretaries’ tax-funded salary.

Hirose, also a lawyer, gained national prominence with her victory in the 2022 Upper House election. She defeated the incumbent in the Iwate electoral district, who was a close aide to Ichiro Ozawa, a political heavyweight of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Hirose’s win secured the seat for the LDP in the district, where Ozawa has long wielded overwhelming political influence, for the first time in 30 years.

From the end of 2022 to August last year, she appointed the wife of her first government-paid secretary as her second state-financed secretary, but there are suspicions she pocketed most of the 4 million yen salary due to the secretary, who did not actually do any work.

When the Shukan Shincho weekly magazine reported the suspicions in March, Hirose denied them as “baseless.” She explained that the second secretary worked remotely on weekdays, carrying out such tasks as creating supporter lists, and performed other office duties like driving the legislator on weekends at her office in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture.

If this explanation proves to be false, it would be tantamount to extremely malicious behavior. Hirose has no excuse, not only as a legislator but also as a legal professional. After the search, she has remained silent, but she has an obligation to address these questions adequately in public.

The investigation into Hirose’s suspected fraud came on the heels of a probe into allegations against another LDP lawmaker, Manabu Horii. Just two weeks ago, prosecutors searched the Lower House member’s offices and residence on suspicion he violated the Public Offices Election Law by distributing condolence money to voters in his district through his secretaries.

The inquiries into the criminal allegations against two of its members represent a dire situation for the LDP, which has been struggling to regain the public trust it has lost due to a scandal involving slush funds.

However, the response from LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi has been surprisingly curt and indifferent, saying he “expects them to fulfill their responsibilities to explain properly,” almost as if to disassociate the LDP from the two legislators who have left the party. He showed a complete lack of the recognition that the scandals point to problems with the party.

Since the late 1990s and into the 2000s, a series of cases arose involving legislators fraudulently obtaining the tax-financed salaries of their secretaries. In 2004, the secretary salary law was amended to introduce measures to prevent such fraud, including the requirement that the salaries of secretaries to Diet members be directly deposited into their personal accounts.

However, critics quickly pointed out obvious loopholes, such as secretaries initially receiving the salary and then “returning” it to the legislator. If the allegations against Hirose prove to be true, the case shows a blatant disregard for the purpose of the legislative amendments and a lack of awareness of the serious implications of past similar incidents.

Each Diet member is allowed to have up to three secretaries whose salaries are paid for by the government. These secretaries are special civil servants whose primary duty is to assist in legislative activities. Legislators must be fully aware of the significance of their public roles.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 2