Mito Kakizawa, who “resigned as Vice Minister of Justice,” may be arrested for “bribing” some ward assembly members… Allegations of “cash disbursement” to some ward assembly members surfaced.

The Koto Ward administration is in turmoil as the incumbent ward mayor and locally elected vice minister of justice announce their resignations or resignations one after another.

On October 26, Yayoi Kimura, 58, mayor of Tokyo’s Koto Ward, abruptly announced her resignation. Two days earlier, on October 24, he was under investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office for allegedly violating the Public Offices Election Law by paying 140,000 yen to a video advertising website for paid advertisements calling for votes for him during the election for mayor in April of this year.

Kimura was also interviewed voluntarily and told a press conference on April 26 that the investigation was conducted at the ward mayor’s office, Kimura’s home, and his parents’ house.

I am very sorry to resign in this manner, despite the high expectations placed on me,” Kimura said. I thought that I must not allow the ward administration to become confused or stagnant.”

On the morning of the 25th, he informed the deputy ward mayor of his intention to resign by phone. He consulted with his father, Tsutomu Kimura, 84, who served as a member of the House of Representatives in Tokyo’s 15th district, which includes Koto Ward, and received the reply, “I will respect your decision,” after which he decided to resign.

I have no intention of running in a runoff election,” he said. I will not run for the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors, or even for national office.”

Kimura indicated that he has no intention of running for office in the future.

On October 31, four days after his resignation press conference, Mizu Kakizawa, 52, vice minister of justice, who had supported Kimura’s campaign, submitted a letter of resignation as vice minister to the cabinet general affairs office, claiming that “I encouraged” the use of paid advertising. Mr. Kakizawa has held Tokyo’s 15th ward (Koto-ku) since his father’s generation, and had supported Mr. Kimura in the April election for ward mayor.

Kakizawa, who has been elected five times, was appointed vice minister of Justice in Kishida’s second cabinet reshuffle, which took place in September of this year. The resignation of the Ministry of Justice’s number two official in charge of election violations would be damaging to the Kishida administration.

The Public Offices Election Law was amended in 2001 to allow campaigning through social networking services (SNS), and while it is not illegal to call for votes through SNS, it is forbidden to use paid advertisements to call for votes because it favors candidates with strong financial resources.

The Public Election Law prohibits the use of paid advertisements showing a candidate’s name for the purpose of election campaigning, but it is legal for political parties and organizations to post banner ads, etc. The Kimura campaign was apparently aware that it was “included in the exception” because the paid ads were linked to the political organization’s website.

During the election period, the Election Commission and the police never pointed this out to us,” Kimura said at the press conference.

Kimura said at the press conference, implying that he was checking with the investigative authorities.

Kakizawa told the Asahi Shimbun, “I was not aware or knowledgeable of what was out of bounds and what was safe,” and “I was not aware that it was illegal, and later I asked myself, ‘Is that illegal?　I was not aware that it was illegal, and later I asked myself, ‘Is that illegal?

The interpretation of the Public Election Law will be left to future investigations and trials, but why did Mr. Kimura and Mr. Kakizawa, whose father was also a politician and who himself had been elected to the House of Representatives, use paid advertising, which is a violation of the Public Election Law? At the press conference, Mr. Kimura gave an inadequate explanation, saying, “I cannot answer that question because the investigation is ongoing. The aforementioned reporter in charge of judicial affairs described the background of the investigation as follows.

A 61-year-old man filed a criminal complaint against Mayor Kimura with the Fukagawa Police Department, which was accepted, and the case became a matter for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. If the case was a case involving the chief of one of Tokyo’s 23 wards, it would have been investigated by the Investigation Division 2, which handles corruption cases involving politicians. However, the Special Investigation Department took the case as if to steal it.

It was unusual for the Special Investigation Department to conduct a mandatory investigation for a violation of the Public Election Law of that level, and it was believed that the investigation was not focused on the ward mayor, but rather on Kakizawa’s badge as a councilor. Kimura’s father and sister were also questioned and raided. There are reports that some ward assembly members admitted to receiving cash from Kakizawa during the April election for ward mayor, and if true, they would not be exempt from arrest.

Kakizawa has resigned from his post as vice minister of justice, but has avoided saying whether he will resign from the Diet. Without citing Kakuei Tanaka after the Lockheed affair, Kimura can continue his political activities and run for office even if he is convicted as “presumed innocent” until the verdict is finalized.

Kimura, on the other hand, has denied direct involvement in the case, saying that he was not supervised closely enough when he was questioned about the issue at the ward assembly. Despite this, he announced his resignation only two days after the forced investigation.

I had been pursuing the issue in the assembly, but I never thought he would actually quit. ……

A Koto Ward assemblyman belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party could not hide his surprise.

He could have stayed on if he had continued to sit on the council as presumed innocent, but he also could have stayed on. Even if he were to resign, November and December are important months for deliberating the budget for the next fiscal year, and if he informs the council members in private that he will resign as soon as the budget is finalized, they will not reject his resignation.

As the mayor of a city with 530,000 residents in his charge, he should not have resigned until the budget for the next fiscal year was in sight. While deliberating the budget for the next fiscal year, he also has to put up a candidate for the next ward mayor. If Kakizawa were to resign or be arrested, the Koto Ward administration would be in chaos.

According to the ward office, Kimura’s six-month tenure is the shortest in the history of ward administration. A ward mayor election will be held within the year at a cost of several hundred million yen. A supplementary election will also be held, depending on Kakizawa’s success or failure. 140,000-yen paid advertisements are likely to trigger a situation in which hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money will be spent.