Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida left the Kochikai group, which he led until yesterday, due to the scandal of hiding funds by party groups for a long time and giving commissions to MPs. TV channel reports this NHK.
It was previously announced that Kishida intends to resign as faction chairman. However, in light of the developing scandal, he decided to leave the group in order to independently and objectively evaluate what was happening in the party.
A special unit of the Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating the concealment of funds received by five factions of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party from fundraising events held with the participation of politicians to support the party. Tickets for these meetings are often purchased by Japanese business representatives. According to the law, if the amount collected in one evening exceeds 200 thousand yen ($1.3 thousand), the names of the donors and the amount of donations must be stated in the report.
But it turned out that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s largest group did not specify the amount of several hundred million yen, the equivalent of several million dollars over five years. Moreover, further investigation revealed that if a politician collected more than the set limit, the excess was returned to him. These amounts were not specified either in party documents or in MPs’ reports. Several dozen people in the Abe faction received such kickbacks in amounts ranging from tens of millions of yen to hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars.
Perhaps one of the defendants will be Hirokazu Matsuno, the “right-hand man” of Kishida, the current General Secretary of the Government. He was in a leadership position in the Abe faction and could not have been unaware of what was going on. Over the past few days, as the government spokesman holds daily press conferences, journalists persistently asked him questions about the funds used by the party for these purposes, but he avoided answering.
Meanwhile, the opposition has already stated that it will demand his resignation if he does not receive a comprehensive explanation. This could seriously weaken Kishida’s government, given that its ratings have already fallen to historically low levels.
Also Asahi edition published A photo from Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s meeting with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Also in the photo was Masayoshi Kajikuri, head of the Japanese branch of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), which has friendly ties with the notorious religious organization “Unification Church”. Also pictured is Michael Jenkins, the former head of the American branch of this organization and one of the leaders of the UPF.
Previously Russia terminated Cooperation agreement with Japan on the elimination of nuclear weapons.