Photo/Illutration A building that houses Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office (The Asahi Shimbun)

An accountant working for the Liberal Democratic Party’s parliamentary group in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly was summarily indicted for failing to report about 35 million yen ($225,000) raised from political fundraising events and other sources.

The emerging scandal resembles the one in national politics involving slush funds among LDP intraparty factions, including the largest Abe faction, that prosecutors pursued in 2024.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said Jan. 17 that it summarily indicted Hidekatsu Yajima, 72, for violating the Political Fund Control Law by submitting falsified reports.

The total amount of unreported funds, including expenditures, comes to around 63 million yen.

The case points to widespread misconduct over fundraising reports among LDP members at the local level.

This could potentially impact the Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections and Upper House election scheduled for this summer.

EXCESS REVENUE 

According to sources, the LDP parliamentary group’s administrative office distributed 100 tickets for fund-raising events worth 2 million yen to each sitting Tokyo metropolitan assembly member and set a sales quota of 50 tickets worth 1 million yen.

Revenue from up to 50 tickets sold beyond the quota was not submitted to the LDP group but instead kept by the assembly members.

Assembly members who sold all 100 tickets were given additional fundraising tickets, with the proceeds from those sales split evenly between the members and the LDP group.

The Tokyo metropolitan assembly’s LDP group held political fundraising events in 2019 and 2022.

Yajima is accused of failing to report around 35 million yen in revenue generated by the assembly members in both years.

Additionally, expenditures were understated by about 28 million yen in the reports.

The official responsible for the group’s accounts is rotated annually among Tokyo metropolitan assembly members, but Yajima handled paperwork such as bookkeeping and preparing financial reports for many years.

CASE AGAINST MEMBERS DROPPED

Prosecutors appear to have decided not to build a case against assembly members since they consider 30 million yen per individual as the threshold for filing charges of falsifying financial reports.

The LDP group’s financial reports listed revenue from its fundraising parties as 62.46 million yen in 2019 and 61.12 million yen in 2022.

The LDP group is expected to amend its financial report soon.

At the national level, prosecutors clarified the extent of a longstanding practice of withholding slush funds among LDP factions and their failure to submit accurate funding reports. That included around 1.35 billion yen by the Abe faction, 380 million yen by the Nikai faction and 30 million yen by the Kishida faction.

Prosecutors built cases against 11 individuals, including three faction accountants, four sitting and former lawmakers, and four secretaries.

Related News