LDP Issued 130 M. Yen for Secret Expenses Ahead of 2024 Election

Tokyo, Nov. 28 (Jiji Press)–Ahead of the 2024 House of Representatives election in Japan, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party issued a total of 130 million yen for so-called policy activity expenses, according to political funds reports released by the internal affairs ministry on Friday. The policy activity expense scheme has been questioned as a hotbed of slush funds. Under the scheme, political parties provide funds to individual politicians with no obligation to disclose how the funds are used. Following a slush fund scandal involving LDP factions, then LDP President and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pledged to reform the controversial scheme during the Lower House election campaign. After taking office on Oct. 1, 2024, Ishiba dissolved the Lower House on Oct. 9 for the general election later that month. According to the 2024 political funds reports, the LDP provided then Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama with 30 million yen on Oct. 7 and 100 million yen on Oct. 8, both under the policy activity expense scheme. At a parliamentary meeting on Oct. 7 that year, Ishiba pledged to work to reform the expense scheme, including its possible abolition in the future. Furthermore, Ishiba stressed during the election campaign that the LDP would not use policy activity expenses for the election, and clarified after the election that the party did not use such expenses. It is not known how Moriyama used the 130 million yen. After the LDP-led ruling coalition lost its Lower House majority in the general election, Ishiba said that he would abolish the policy activity expense scheme promptly. In December 2024, a bill to revise the political funds control law was enacted, setting the scheme to be abolished in January 2026. Despite these developments, the LDP provided a total of 134 million yen from Nov. 25 to 29, 2024, to Moriyama, then party parliamentary affairs chief Tetsushi Sakamoto, Masaji Matsuyama, then party secretary-general in the Upper House, and Junichi Ishii, then party parliamentary affairs chief in the Upper House. In 2024, the LDP’s policy activity expenses totaled 478.3 million yen, down 43.8 pct from the previous year. Of the total, 233.8 million yen went to Moriyama and 122 million yen to his predecessor, Toshimitsu Motegi. A total of 2,910 organizations submitted 2024 political funds reports to the internal affairs minister. Their total expenditures increased 16.3 pct to 104,170 million yen, while their revenues fell 2.9 pct to 93,749 million yen. Political party headqurters’ expenses rose 21.5 pct to 77,961 million yen, while their revenues dipped 0.4 pct to 68,715 million yen. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]