Tomorrow (the 18th), Shimomura, the Liberal Democratic Party's former political affairs research chairman, will attend the House of Representatives Political Ethics Review Committee regarding the factional political funding issue.
I will explain three areas of focus.
table of contents
1.Why did the kickback continue?
[Who is Hirofumi Shimomura, whose comments are attracting attention?]
2.Was there any awareness of the illegality?
3. When did kickbacks start?
Expert: ``Until now, the public's doubts have deepened and they felt indigestion''
The contents of Mr. Shimomura's corrections are
Open table of contents
table of contents
table of contents
1.Why did the kickback continue?
[Who is Hirofumi Shimomura, whose comments are attracting attention?]
2.Was there any awareness of the illegality?
3. When did kickbacks start?
Expert: ``Until now, the public's doubts have deepened and they felt indigestion''
The contents of Mr. Shimomura's corrections are
1.Why did the kickback continue?
A major focus of the review committees held in both the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors so far has been the question of why the kickbacks to members of the Diet, which Abe, the former Prime Minister, allegedly ordered to be stopped, continued after that. .
Mr. Nishimura, Mr. Shioya, and Mr. Seko, who have already given their defense at the review board, will be attending the meeting of Abe faction leaders in August 2019, where the continuation of kickbacks is said to have been discussed on the 18th. Mr. Shimomura was in attendance.
At the review meeting on the 1st of this month, Mr. Nishimura said, ``There was a voice from a member of the Diet who had sold more than his quota asking for his money back, so executives met in early August to discuss how to respond. In response, Mr. Shioya said, ``There are many people who are struggling with what to do with their refunds, so I understand that the discussion was about ``I guess it can't be helped'' and it was decided to continue.'' He explained, ``It's happening.''
Seko's remarks at the House of Councilors panel drew attention as opposition parties pointed out that the explanations were inconsistent.
However, at that meeting, Mr. Seko stated that ``nothing definite has been decided,'' and when asked, ``Where and who made the decision to continue the kickbacks,'' he answered, ``Who made the decision?'' I would like to know for myself.'' Questions still remain unresolved as to how decisions were made by faction leaders.
[Who is Hirofumi Shimomura, whose comments are attracting attention?]
Hirofumi Shimomura has been elected to the Tokyo 11th Ward of the House of Representatives nine times.
He has previously served as Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Political Affairs Research Board.
In the Abe faction, he served as Secretary General under then-Chairman Hosoda from January 2018 to September 2019, and Shioya Shioya, former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, from November 2021, when former Prime Minister Abe became chairman, to August last year. He also served as acting chairman.
He was also one of the people who attended the executive meeting held in August last year to discuss how to handle kickbacks to members of the Diet.
However, it is said that there is a distance between former Prime Minister Mori, who once served as the faction's chairman, and the influential members of the group known as the ``Five,'' and under the new system that was launched in August last year, a permanent member of the faction is responsible for decision-making. I did not become a member of the executive committee.
2.Was there any awareness of the illegality?
At a press conference in January, Mr. Shimomura said during an executive meeting in August 2022, ``The refund amount will be added to each member's individual fund-raising party, and it will be legally distributed in the income and expenditure report.'' A proposal has been presented."
Mr. Seko also said at last week's review meeting, ``During the discussion, of course there is only a legal response, so I think we came up with an idea of what could be a legal response. ” and so on.
Regarding the meaning of the word ``legal,'' opposition parties point out that it indicates that Abe's senior leaders may have been aware of the illegality.
The executives who have attended the review committee so far have said in unison that there was no recognition of illegality and that there was no discussion of whether it was illegal or legal, but the big question is what Mr. Shimomura will say. It's the focus.
3. When did kickbacks start?
Another focus is how and when the kickbacks began.
Mr. Shioya has said, ``I think it started about 20 years ago, but I'm not aware of the exact details,'' and Mr. Seko said, ``I think it started at least 10 years ago, but I don't know when it started.'' I don't know if it was."
Mr. Nishimura also said, ``Due to long-standing customary relations between the faction's past presidents and the executive director, no executives other than the president were ever involved.''
The previous Abe faction presidents, Mr. Abe, Mr. Hosoda, and Mr. Machimura, have already passed away.
Regarding whether or not Mori, the former Prime Minister and chairman of the Abe faction who preceded Machimura and had strong influence over the faction, was involved, executives who have attended the meeting so far have said, ``In the Liberal Democratic Party's hearing, Mr. Mori Mr. Shimomura's involvement is not recognized,'' and the public is paying attention to what kind of recognition and thoughts Mr. Shimomura will express on this point.
Expert: ``Until now, the public's doubts have deepened and they felt indigestion''
Chiju Okawa, a professor at Kanagawa University who specializes in political process theory, said, ``Instead of resolving the public's doubts about political funding, past committees have deepened them, creating a feeling of indigestion among a wide range of people.'' Point out.
On top of that, he talked about the examination meeting held on the 18th, which Mr. Shimomura will attend, as follows:
"Former Prime Minister Abe's decision to cancel kickbacks has been defended by pro-Abe executives, saying that he was probably trying to increase transparency, but it is true that the executives at the time , there is a suspicion that Mr. Shimomura was aware of the legal issues.It is unclear how far Mr. Shimomura can or will go into his statements, but in any case, the explanations given by executives so far are unclear. The fact that the content is extremely lacking in content will have a big impact, and we can expect things to turn out to be difficult for the Liberal Democratic Party."
The contents of Mr. Shimomura's corrections are
In a survey conducted by the Liberal Democratic Party, Hirofumi Shimomura, former secretary-general of the Abe faction and former chairman of the Policy Research Institute, said that in the four years up to 2022, there was a total of 4.76 million yen in unreported amounts, and the amount was 4.76 million yen each year. The breakdown is 360,000 yen in 2019, 1.24 million yen in 2020, 1.88 million yen in 2021, and 1.28 million yen in 2022.
He was accused of failing to record a total of 4.4 million yen in income from factions in the political funds balance report for the three years up to 2022 of the political group "Liberal Democratic Party Tokyo 11th Constituent District Branch," of which he is the representative. I amend the income and expenditure report on the 31st of each month.
On his website, Mr. Shimomura stated that the proceeds from the sale of party tickets for factions that exceeded the quota were ``managed in a dedicated account and were not spent at all,'' adding, ``It should have been recorded as a donation, but... There was also an erroneous communication from the faction secretariat, so it remained unrecorded."