Photo/Illutration Koichi Hagiuda, former chairman of ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council, attends a plenary session of the Lower House on April 3. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Tokyo prosecutors on Aug. 15 filed a summary indictment against an aide of Koichi Hagiuda, former chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council, over unreported donations.

The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office accused 46-year-old Toshifumi Ushikubo of failing to report around 19.5 million yen ($132,500) in donations from an LDP faction in political funds income and expenditure reports.

The Tokyo Summary Court ordered Ushikubo to pay a fine of 300,000 yen and issued him with a three-year suspension of certain fundamental civil rights and liberties that are normally taken for granted.

The case relates to the high-profile funding scandal surrounding the LDP’s largest intraparty faction that was previously led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Its lawmaker members accumulated sums of cash in unreported assets from fund-raising parties.

Ushikubo had been accused of not recording the 22.9 million yen in donations he received from the faction in political funds income and expenditure reports for the years 2019 through 2022.

He was responsible for administrative tasks related to the sale of party tickets for the LDP branch headed by Hagiuda.

In December 2024, Ushikubo was handed a non-prosecution disposition, meaning a suspension of prosecution.

But this past June, the Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution stated that “if the suspension of prosecution continues, false statements will not disappear,” and resolved that prosecution was appropriate.

Based on this resolution and the results of a reinvestigation, Tokyo prosecutors reversed the earlier non-prosecution decision for Ushikubo and handed down the summary indictment for about 19.5 million yen in unreported donations from the most recent three years that were not barred by the statute of limitations.

Tokyo prosecutors have decided not to prosecute Hagiuda due to the lack of suggestion he was involved in any way. The committee also agreed this was appropriate.

Related News