Tokyo’s Secret Funds Scandal and Shinji Ishimaru’s New Party Plans: Election Blow?

Suspected of the same scheme as factional slush funds

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) faction, “Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly LDP,” is suspected of turning the proceeds from party tickets sold beyond the sales quota at political fund-raising parties into unreported secret funds by failing to list the income in their political fund reports.

These parties, except during the COVID-19 pandemic, were held on a grand scale. A former metropolitan assembly member shared the following:

“Each assembly member was given 100 party tickets (worth 200,000 yen), with 50 tickets (worth 100,000 yen) as a quota, and the excess could be kept by the members. Veteran members with urban constituencies would pocket more than 100,000 yen in excess, and the extra amount was shared between the secretary’s office and the member. Meanwhile, some younger members would purchase party tickets with their own money to meet their quotas.”

While the specifics varied, in the secret fund cases that occurred in the Abe and Nikai factions, the proceeds from party tickets sold beyond the quota were either kickbacked from the faction’s office to the members or pocketed directly by the members without being submitted to the faction.

“It was a similar scheme, and both the office and the members had been doing it for years without questioning it. But about a year ago, the secret fund issue in the factions became a huge scandal. It was only a matter of time before it reached the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly LDP,” said the former assembly member.

The Tokyo Metropolitan LDP has amended its financial reports, acknowledging that there was unreported income from parties held between 2022 and 2023. Both the faction and individual members’ financial reports failed to list the income, and it is believed to constitute a violation of the Political Funds Control Act (false reporting).