<figure id="attachment_388814" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-388814"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="da173a48"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/209209d6459036d3186cf75247e60e26.jpg" alt=""></a>Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the Shinzo Abe administration and made a notable impact.</figure>
In articles published on August 29, &#8220;Former Driver&#8217;s Decisive Confession: Government Confidential Funds Used as &#8216;Special Allowances&#8217; for Cabinet Office Escort Staff!&#8221; and &#8220;New Political and Financial Issue Emerges: The &#8216;Appalling Reasons&#8217; Government Confidential Funds, Sourced from Taxes, Flowed to Cabinet Office Driving Staff&#8221;, it was reported that Cabinet Office reward funds (government confidential funds) are also flowing to drivers and security personnel serving the Chief Cabinet Secretary.
Read &#8220;<a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/388439">Former Driver&#8217;s Decisive Confession: Government Confidential Funds Used as &#8216;Special Allowances&#8217; for Cabinet Office Escort Staff!</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/388444">New Political and Financial Issue Emerges: The &#8216;Appalling Reasons&#8217; Government Confidential Funds, Sourced from Taxes, Flowed to Cabinet Office Driving Staff</a>&#8220;.
 
Government Cabinet Office reward funds, also called government confidential funds, are defined as &#8220;expenses used flexibly and appropriately according to the immediate mission and situation to smoothly and effectively carry out national affairs or projects.&#8221; These funds are used without parliamentary oversight, do not require receipts, and have undisclosed uses, making them akin to &#8220;grabbing money&#8221; for the ruling administration.
Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, who served during the Obuchi administration in 1998, and other former Chief Cabinet Secretaries have revealed that the uses of confidential funds include &#8220;dining expenses and gifts for opposition lawmakers to pass bills,&#8221; &#8220;gifts to political commentators for public opinion management,&#8221; and &#8220;farewell gifts for ruling and opposition lawmakers on overseas trips.&#8221;
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<h3>Suspicion Rises That Confidential Funds Were Used for the 200,000 Yen Tokyo Olympics Album</h3>
<figure id="attachment_388815" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 4589px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-388815"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ed6cddea"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/b4fe882526cd3e8b730327d1e45a3fc1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-388815" class="wp-caption-text">Ishikawa Governor Hiroshi Hase reveals that he used confidential funds to pay for gifts to the IOC Members.</figcaption></figure>
In November 2023, Hiroshi Hase (63), the Governor of Ishikawa Prefecture, revealed in a lecture that confidential funds were used for the 200,000 yen per album gift given to International Olympic Committee (IOC) members under the direction of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as part of the Tokyo Olympics bid activities.
“The &#8220;Hase Diary&#8221; on Ameba Blog noted that then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (75) had urged, &#8220;Since Prime Minister Abe is also strongly hoping for this, please make sure that the government and the party work together to secure the bid.&#8221; This post led to speculation among reporters that confidential funds were definitely used for the album.”
Governor Hase quickly fell silent, leaving the truth uncertain. Subsequently, Takeo Kawamura (81), who served as Chief Cabinet Secretary under Taro Aso’s administration, added this regarding the suspicion:
“What Governor Hase leaked was also (confidential funds). It was needed suddenly and could not be included in the budget; it benefits the national interest. Such money can only be covered by reward funds.”
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="A &quot;wad of cash&quot; from his pocket: ......"></div>
<figure id="attachment_388816" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 4000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-388816"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="267951c8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/fbc7f7e1db646bd561bc24bb45972247.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-388816" class="wp-caption-text">Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno was suspended from party positions for one year.</figcaption></figure>
Various suspicions have arisen about confidential funds, with reports of even more surprising uses.
Shokichi Ishikawa (pseudonym), who served as a driver for Chief Cabinet Secretaries from the Abe administration to the current Kishida administration, testified in an August 29 FRIDAY Digital article that the Chief Cabinet Secretary’s secretary had &#8220;handed cash funded by confidential funds as special allowances&#8221; to drivers and security personnel (the Cabinet Office Cabinet Secretariat and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department&#8217;s Public Relations Division, Third Section, provided no substantive response).
Shokichi Ishikawa also disclosed an unexpected use of confidential funds observed within the Prime Minister&#8217;s Office: &#8220;farewell gifts for ruling and opposition lawmakers going on overseas trips.&#8221;
In August 2022, Keiko Nagaoka (70), who was appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in the second Kishida first reshuffle cabinet, traveled to India and Malaysia from June 21 to 26, 2023. Before her trip, Nagaoka was reportedly summoned to the Prime Minister&#8217;s Office by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno (61). According to Ishikawa:
&#8220;Before an overseas trip, there is a custom of handing over several hundred thousand yen in cash as a &#8216;farewell gift&#8217; from the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Observant new cabinet members brought a bag to put the cash in, but Nagaoka came empty-handed. Moreover, since it was early summer, she was lightly dressed and only had a pocket in her skirt to put the cash.
Although she reluctantly put the cash in her pocket, I heard that she dropped the bundle of bills within the Prime Minister&#8217;s Office after leaving the room. It was said that &#8216;considering the bulge in the pocket, she must have received about 3 million yen.'&#8221;
When questioned about the facts, Nagaoka&#8217;s office denied the allegations, stating, &#8220;There is no truth to this.&#8221; Matsuno&#8217;s office responded, &#8220;There are no such facts as inquired.&#8221;
Ishikawa, determined to reveal the &#8220;unknown realities of cabinet members&#8221; he witnessed as a driver, has resolved to share more.
<figure id="attachment_388817" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2616px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-388817"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="969b461c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/8657845bc925ea17084745323da24118.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-388817" class="wp-caption-text">Keiko Nagaoka, Former Minister of Education under the Kishida Administration.</figcaption></figure>
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In the follow-up article, &#8220;<a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/388804">Shinjiro Koizumi Throws Fastball in Cabinet Office Basement as Former Chauffeur Reveals Hidden Faces of Famous Ministers</a>&#8220;, Shokichi Ishikawa exposes the &#8220;hidden faces&#8221; of well-known cabinet members such as Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi (68) and former Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura (61), which are never revealed to the public.
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 Daisuke Iwasaki

 Afro

 Following the two articles published on August 29, Ishikawa reveals what he saw and heard inside the Prime Minister's Office about how secret government expenses are used.

Reality of Grabbing Money Revealed with Cash Stuffed as Farewell Gifts and Unclear Uses of Government Confidential Funds

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