<figure id="attachment_408670" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408670" style="width: 1691px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="78f74d1f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/3b7bd6fca5e933ed4d209f791f230361.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408670" class="wp-caption-text">From the website of the Liberal Democratic Party of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Suspected of the same scheme as &#8220;factional slush funds</h2>
<p> The LDP faction of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, the Tokyo Metropolitan LDP, is suspected of using party ticket revenues collected at political fund parties in excess of its sales quota as slush funds, instead of recording them in its political fund income and expenditure report.</p>
<p> The parties were grand, with the exception of the COVID-19 crisis. A former Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member said, &#8220;Each Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member was given a party ticket.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Each member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was given 100 party tickets (worth 2 million yen), and told that the quota was 50 tickets (worth 1 million yen), and that any excess over the quota could be used by the assemblyman to cut out the middleman. The quota was set at 50 tickets (equivalent to 1 million yen), and the excess was to be split between the secretariat and the council members. On the other hand, there are young councilors who buy par tickets out of their own pocket to meet their quotas. &#8230;&#8230;</span></p>
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<p> Although the quotas and amounts differ, in the &#8220;faction slush fund cases&#8221; involving the former Abe and Nikai factions, the sales of par tickets collected by Diet members in excess of their quotas were either kicked back to the members from the faction secretariat or were not paid to the faction and the members cut out the middleman. The same with that scheme,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The faction office and the Diet members had been doing this for years without questioning it. But a year ago, the faction&#8217;s slush fund problem caused a huge uproar. It was probably only a matter of time before it sparked off the LDP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly,&#8221; said the former Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member.</span></p>
<p> The Tokyo Metropolitan Federation of the Liberal Democratic Party corrected its income and expenditure reports, claiming that income from parties held between 2010 and 2011 was not recorded. The income was not listed as income in the reports of the LDP Tokyo Federation of Trade Unions and Diet members, which is considered a violation of the Political Funds Control Law (misstatement).</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The Man is finally on the move!"></div>
<h2>The pickings are&#8230;</h2>
<figure id="attachment_408675" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408675" style="width: 1020px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="360ae6dc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/3b7bd6fca5e933ed4d209f791f230361-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408675" class="wp-caption-text"> Ishimaru came in second in last summer&#8217;s gubernatorial election.</figcaption></figure>
<p> However, the amount of slush funds in this case is about 1 to 2 million yen per legislator. In the case of slush funds for factions of Diet members, the prosecutors had caught the case on the basis of 40 million yen or more. While there are whispers that the <span class="strongInContent">Tokyo</span> District Public Prosecutors&#8217; Office <span class="strongInContent">may not pursue the case in light of the impact on the Tokyo Assembly elections</span>, the issue is how far the prosecutors will go in their investigation.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has called in a special prosecutor in support of the case since December of last year, and is asking questions on a voluntary basis. If the amount of money intentionally omitted is that high, there is a possibility that they will build a case against Mr. Y, who was involved in the accounting for the violation of the Political Funds Control Law (misstatement).</span></p>
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<p> With the Liberal Democratic Party of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly stuck in a corner, &#8220;that man&#8221; has risen to the occasion.</p>
<p> He is Shinji Ishimaru, 42, former mayor of Aki Takata City, who attracted attention during last year&#8217;s gubernatorial election. Ishimaru was scheduled to hold a press conference on January 15 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to announce the launch of a new regional political party, but on January 13, just two days before the press conference, he announced on his website that the press conference had been canceled. However, on the same day, he announced that the press conference would be held at a different venue. In the release for the new press conference, he gave a detailed order, asking for <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;</span> the <span class="strongInContent">existence of mass media&#8221; and &#8220;the existence of Internet media equivalent to 1 million registered users&#8221;</span> as conditions for participation.</p>
<p> At the beginning of the press conference, Jiji Press, which was the press club&#8217;s secretariat, was named and stated.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the beginning of the press conference, he named the Jiji Press, which was the managing company of the press club, and said, &#8220;As for information management, are you allowed to leak (the release) without permission?　There is still no apology. They are taking advantage of us.</span></p>
<p> Even though Ishimaru has divided the media from the outset and is not running for office, will he be able to generate enough wind to defeat the LDP&#8217;s candidate?</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Mr. Ishimaru&#8217;s case is hardly a topic of conversation within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government or the Tokyo Assembly. It will depend on the candidates they field, but there are sure to be many publicity-seeking candidates like the one who ran in last year&#8217;s gubernatorial election, and their influence is seen as limited. Rather, attention is focusing on the momentum of the National Democratic Party of Japan, which made great strides in the last lower house election,&#8221; said a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Will the KDP&#39;s breakthrough continue?"></div>
<h2>Declares, &#8220;We will move forward with our candidacy.&#8221;</h2>
<figure id="attachment_408678" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408678" style="width: 4589px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3cec9cec"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/18e55bbaaa945c8c29789ae7dda2a16c-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408678" class="wp-caption-text"> Tamaki hopes to sustain momentum from last year&#8217;s lower house election</figcaption></figure>
<p> In a Yomiuri Shimbun poll last December, the KDP&#8217;s party approval rating was 12%, second only to the LDP (24%) and ahead of the Rikken Democratic Party (8%), which jumped to &#8220;No. 1 opposition party&#8221; for the first time. <br>
Although the party does not have a seat in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, Yuichiro Tamaki, 55, representative of the party, <span class="strongInContent">said, &#8220;We received great expectations in the Lower House election.</span> We <span class="strongInContent">will proceed with our bid to</span> win a seat in the <span class="strongInContent">Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly,&#8221; he said.</span></p>
<p> The KDP is also promoting cooperation with the &#8220;Tomin First no Kai,&#8221; a regional party for which Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (72) serves as a special advisor. Last April, Tamaki repeatedly came to the aid of independent candidate Yoko Otome, 48, whom Gov. Koike supported in the Tokyo 15 lower house by-election. The two parties have held study sessions, and the Tokyo Metropolitan People&#8217;s Party is cooperating with the People&#8217;s Democratic Party of Japan in the recent lower house election.</p>
<figure id="attachment_408680" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-408680" style="width: 3205px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="292f5993"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/59a40b0843d69567dc6d375ad1550445.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-408680" class="wp-caption-text"> Koike, who won a third term in last summer&#8217;s gubernatorial election</figcaption></figure>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;We want to minimize competition in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections and increase the number of seats in the assembly together.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> A senior official of the Tokyo Metropolitan People&#8217;s Party continues, adding, &#8220;The Liberal Democratic Party has no momentum.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The KDP will make a great leap forward because the Liberal Democratic Party is not gaining momentum. If we gain a certain number of seats, we would like to form a ruling party of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly consisting of the TMIFA, Komeito, and the KDP. We have not yet discussed how to adjust the electoral districts, but there should be no problem even if candidates from the KDP and the DPJ overlap in electoral districts with at least five seats, such as Setagaya (eight seats), Ota (seven seats), and Nerima (seven seats). The two top leaders, Koike and Tamaki, are good friends, so there should be no big trouble.</span></p>
<p> The issue of slush funds, which has been simmering for more than a year without being clarified, also casts a shadow over the LDP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Will the KDP continue its momentum from the lower house election and win seats in the assembly and join forces with the Tokyo Metropolitan People&#8217;s Party, or will Ishimaru once again create a whirlwind of controversy? The battle is already underway for the summer Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections.</p>
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 Daisuke Iwasaki

 Afro

 Suspicions have surfaced that the LDP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly has been making slush funds. All eyes are now on the prosecutor's office to see how this will affect the upcoming Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections in the summer. In the midst of all this, Shinji Ishimaru, who has declared the formation of a new party, is smiling broadly.

Shinji Ishimaru, who has formed a new party and is smiling broadly after &#8220;allegations of slush funds&#8221; by the LDP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly surfaced, has &#8220;ironclad&#8221; plans for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election.

Shinji Ishimaru, who has formed a new party and is smiling broadly after “allegations of slush funds” by the LDP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly surfaced, has “ironclad” plans for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election.

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