I was even raided!” The Japan Innovation Party’s Uguisu-jyo angrily confesses that her salary has been “pinned down.

I was even raided!” A woman in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture

It was on February 22 of this year that the home of Ms. A, a resident of Takarazuka City, Hyogo Prefecture, was raided. Detectives from the Amagasaki Minami Police Station who visited the house suspected that Ms. A, who worked as a campaign worker on a campaign van, had illegally received remuneration in excess of the legal limit.

However, Ms. A had no recollection of this. In her nearly 30-year career as a Uguisujo, this was the first time she had ever had such a trouble. On the same day, detectives also came to the home of Ms. B., a woman who lives in Neyagawa City, Osaka Prefecture.

One month later, on March 24, a man in his 40s who was the secretary of former The Japan Innovation Party (Junko Tokuyasu, 64, a member of the House of Representatives) was summarily indicted for paying compensation in excess of the legal limit to a campaign worker on his car.

In this case, a woman who had been organizing the Uguisu-jyo was also summarily indicted for receiving illegal remuneration (bribed). The charge was violation of the Public Offices Election Law.

The two women, Ms. A and Ms. B, were working for Mr. Tokuyasu’s campaign. The two expressed their indignation to the FRIDAY reporter, saying, “Before we knew it, we had been made complicit in the fraudulent activities that took place by using a woo-girl.

“On the morning of February 22, a detective came to my house and took me straight to the Amagasaki Minami Police Station for a voluntary interview. The investigator told me, ‘Tell the truth. How much money did you receive?　You were paid more than the legal amount, weren’t you! I was scolded.

The law stipulates that the remuneration for a “uguisujo” (a female prostitute) is 20,000 yen per day, and I had only received 140,000 yen for the seven days I had worked. No matter how much I insisted so, the detectives were not convinced. They also told me that they had been checking on our activities during the campaign and knew where we ate, how many times we went to the bank, and even how we got home. And they even searched our house that night,” said Ms. A.

The Ugly Girl was butthurt when her house was searched and her phone seized!

There was a reason why the detectives were not convinced. It was because her remuneration was recorded at 240,000 yen in Mr. Tokuyasu’s income and expenditure report. Ms. B, who was also being questioned on the same day, had her remuneration, which should have been 80,000 yen (remuneration for four days), recorded at 120,000 yen. For both of them, it was a receipt they had no recollection of having received. This raised suspicions among the women.

They suspected that our fees had been padded and that the difference was being taken out of our paychecks.

Their hunch proved correct. After the police examined their bank account records, their suspicions were confirmed. However, it turned out that in the city councilor election in Settsu City, Osaka Prefecture, last September, a “70,000 yen” Uguisu fee, which had no actual operation, was posted by the camp of the “Ishin no Kai” party as a payment to Ms. A.

The detective also said that he had said and done things about the November 2012 supplementary election for Hyogo Prefectural Assembly members, in which Mr. A participated, that made him suspicious of any wrongdoing.

The detectives searched his house, checked his family’s bank accounts, and confiscated his smartphone. It took two weeks until I was cleared of suspicion and my smartphone was returned to me. ……” (Mr. A)

Unable to hear the detective’s words during the interrogation, Ms. A checked the income and expenditure report of the candidate who had served as a “uguisu” (Japanese bush warbler) in the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly’s supplementary election. She found that she had been paid for nine days of work, instead of the five days she was supposed to have worked.

We were at the respective election sites at the request of the woman who was summarily indicted in the case of Mr. Tokuyasu. The remuneration was hand-delivered, and we had no way of knowing how much it was declared for” (Mr. B).

Ms. A and Ms. B asked their respective council members to correct and explain the income and expenditure reports, and also asked the headquarters of the “Hyogo Restoration Association” and the “Osaka Restoration Association,” to which they belong, to explain and take action as the party, but they only said that they would investigate, and no concrete reports or corrections of income and expenditure reports were ever made.

He said, “Without my knowledge, I was made complicit in a violation of the Public Offices Election Law, and was even interrogated by the police. I still cannot forget that pain. I wonder if the council members and candidates were unaware of the operation status of the Uguisujo. Mr. Tokuyasu’s case became an incident, and the candidate for the Settsu City Council election lost the election. However, candidate C for the supplementary election for the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly is still the incumbent. I don’t think they can get away with saying, ‘I didn’t know.

Finally, Mr. B shrugged his shoulders.

I am fed up with the laxity of the councilors and the political parties. I’m graduating from the Uguisujo.”

Did Hyogo Prefectural Council Member C recognize the fraudulent acts of using the “Uguisujo” system? How does he intend to handle the situation in the future? When we sent a letter of inquiry to him, he responded as follows.

One of the people who was in charge of the campaign staff at the time pointed out that there might be a discrepancy between the number of days worked by the campaign staff at the time of the supplementary election for the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly in 2012 and the number of days reported on the campaign expense income and expenditure report.

We promptly checked the information with the documents we had at the time at our office to confirm the facts, but were unable to confirm any discrepancies with the number of days stated on the income and expenditure report.

At this time, we are unable to make a determination as to whether the income and expense report needs to be revised. We will continue to take appropriate measures while consulting with our lawyers.

When we asked the Hyogo Restoration Association, to which the prefectural assembly member belongs, whether they were aware of the series of fraudulent activities, they replied, “We are not aware of any compensation exceeding the legal limit being paid to the campaign staff on vehicles in Mr. C’s camp.

Both parties denied any wrongdoing, but Mr. A and Mr. B claimed that their compensation had been pinned on them. Can the allegations be left unaddressed?

From the May 29, 2026 issue of FRIDAY