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On December 19, 2023, members of an investigative team from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrive to search a building in Tokyo that is home to the headquarters of an influential political faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. [Photo/Agencies]
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Special Investigation Department announced on Sunday that it had arrested Yoshitaka Ikeda, a member of the House of Representatives, on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Act.
This is the first arrest in connection with a series of incidents in which the largest faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, once led by Japan’s late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is said to have secretly used some of the funds. Political party income as a slush fund.
Prosecutors also arrested Mr. Ikeda’s policy secretary, Kazuhiro Kakinuma, who oversees the accounting of the political funds management organization Ikeda Reimeikai.
Prosecutors disclosed that Mr. Ikeda (57), a member of the House of Representatives who belongs to the Abe faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, conspired with the Abe faction of the Liberal Democratic Party and received 48.26 million yen ($333,750) in party business income from the faction as kickbacks between 2018 and 2022. I doubt it was. Kakinuma. The money was instead recorded as donation income, Japan’s national newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported.
The Liberal Democratic Party decided to expel Ikeda from the party following his arrest.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday: “It is extremely regrettable and we take it very seriously.” “The party must work with a strong sense of crisis to restore trust in politics.”
Mr. Kishida stated that concrete measures must be effective in response to demands from each party to revise the Political Funds Control Law. Mr. Kishida stated that he would like to deepen the discussion from this perspective and determine what needs to be done to restore trust.
There are suspicions that pro-Abe politicians were funneling funds that exceeded the sales quota for party tickets to politicians as slush funds. This entire flow of funds is not recorded in the financial statements of factions or members.
It is suspected that an estimated total of approximately 500 million yen in income from pro-Abe fundraising parties between 2018 and 2022 was hidden from the books.
Of this amount, Mr. Ikeda received 48.26 million yen, which is believed to be the second largest amount among the faction members. Prosecutors conducted voluntary interviews with Messrs. Ikeda and Kakinuma. Furthermore, on December 27, Mr. Ikeda’s offices in Tokyo and Nagoya were also searched, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
Mr. Ikeda was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012, and was elected to his fourth term in 2021 as a proportional representative representative of the Tokai bloc.
jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn
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