China News Service, November 24. According to a report by Japan’s "Yomiuri Shimbun" on the 24th, regarding the banquet held by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the eve of the "Cherry Blossom Party", the Special Search Department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Prosecution Office believes that Abe and his support club Probably used about 8 million yen (about 504,000 yuan) of funds to fill the shortfall in activity costs.
Regarding the specific source of funds, it is still under investigation.
Earlier, some opposition parties pointed out that Abe may have used public funds to entertain his supporters by taking advantage of the "cherry blossom viewing party."
Data map: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
According to reports, from 2013 to 2019, the Abe government will hold a large-scale banquet called the "Eve Festival" on the eve of the "Sakura Viewing Festival", which is handled by a political group called the "Abe Shinzo Support Association".
According to the report, a source revealed that from 2015 to 2019, the hotel that hosted the "Eve Festival" received a total of 23 million yen in event funds, but in these five years, the total amount of participation fees collected by Abe and its support from participants was only More than 14 million yen.
The Special Search Department believes that the funding gap of about 8 million yen may have been filled by Abe and its support club.
Data map: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the "Sakura Viewing Party" held at Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo.
Photo by Sun Ran from China News Agency
The hotel that hosted the event stated that they did receive the difference from Abe and its support club and issued a receipt to it.
In response, the Special Search Department also stated that they are aware of the existence of receipts.
At present, the Special Search Department is analyzing the information provided by the hotel and Abe and its support associations. At the same time, it is also investigating at least 20 people including the former secretary of Abe and local fund providers.
At the end of 2019, the opposition party accused Abe of taking advantage of the "cherry blossom viewing party" to entertain supporters with public funds in Congress.
In May 2020, more than 600 people including Japanese lawyers and scholars filed a lawsuit with the Special Search Department, claiming that Abe may have used political funds in violation of regulations and used the money to fill the funding gap for banquets, violating the Political Funds Regulations Act and Public election law.
However, Abe denied all the allegations and said that his support club had no revenue or expenditure during the "Eve Ceremony".
On November 23, 2021, Abe's office also issued a statement stating that it will "fully cooperate with the investigation."
Since 1952, the Japanese government has held cherry blossom viewing parties in Shinjuku Gyoen, the capital of Tokyo, inviting representatives from all walks of life to admire the cherry blossoms with the prime minister. The government shall bear the cost.
During Abe's administration, the cherry blossom viewing club budget increased significantly. According to data from the Cabinet Office of Japan, the expenditure for the cherry blossom viewing event in 2014 was about 30 million yen, which increased to 55 million yen in 2019, and the number of participants increased from about 14,000 to 18,000.