Why Hirofumi Shimomura Held an “Angry Solo Performance” at Akiko Ikuina’s Victory Party

At 18:30 on September 14, a black Crown pulled up in front of a high-class Chinese restaurant in Akasaka, Tokyo. Dashing out in a white jacket was Akiko Ikuina, 54, a member of the House of Councilors of the Liberal Democratic Party, who was elected for the first time in the Upper House election this July. She was greeted by a woman standing at the entrance of the Chinese restaurant and walked quickly into the restaurant.

On the day of the event, the Chinese restaurant hosted a victory party for Senator Ikuina’s campaign for the House of Councillors,” she said. More than 20 people, including office staff, attended. Initially, there was talk that some of his friends from his Onyanko Club days would attend, but due to the COVID-19 crisis and other various circumstances, that did not happen. However, “that person” who served as the head of Senator Ikuta’s campaign headquarters did, of course, attend the meeting,” said an LDP official.

That person” is Hirofumi Shimomura, 68, a member of the House of Representatives, whose ties to the former Unification Church have been widely discussed. On the same day as the victory celebration, the Weekly Bunshun reported that he had allegedly received a petition from an executive of a group affiliated with the former Unification Church and instructed him to reflect it in the party’s pledges.

Apparently, Senator Shimomura was quite upset about the article.

It was supposed to be a victory celebration for Senator Ikina, but it was almost a solo performance by Shimomura (laughs). He talked for about two hours, saying, ‘Bunshun did not publish that article.

Perhaps satisfied after talking for as long as he could, at past 8:00 p.m., Senator Shimomura came out of the restaurant before the other members and sped off in a pickup truck.

It was about an hour later that the victory party broke up. After Councilor Ikina got into a cab and left, about 20 participants came out of the restaurant in droves.

He had run for the Upper House as a candidate with outstanding name recognition, but he had struggled mightily and managed to slip to fifth place. The staff wanted to talk about that hardship, but the celebration almost ended up talking about Councilor Shimomura. So a second meeting was held by some of the staff members who did not have enough to talk about (laughs).

However, the victory party for Councilor Ikina, who has many fans in the party, is not only this time, but will be held several times in the future. I hear that victory parties with other big-name Diet members besides Shimomura are also planned” (secretary of a mid-level LDP member).

The LDP has been criticized for a series of revelations about its relationship with the former Unification Church. It seems that for some time to come, Senator Ikuta will be forced to listen to the complaints of the big-name members of the LDP at his own “victory parties.