Mr. Seko “Meeting in March of the year before yesterday, no kickback discussions”

Last March, former Prime Minister Abe and former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura held a meeting with former Prime Minister Abe and former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura to discuss candidate coordination for the House of Councilors election due to issues surrounding the political funding party of a faction within the Liberal Democratic Party. Although he clarified that he had done so, he also explained that he had not discussed how to handle kickbacks.

Former House of Councilors Secretary-General Seko Seko of the Liberal Democratic Party's Abe faction, who attended the House of Councilors' Political Ethics Review Committee in response to this issue, said, ``I did not discuss the handling of kickbacks with former Prime Minister Abe and others in March last year. ``It's not on my schedule or in my memory,'' he answered.

Regarding this, Mr. Seko told reporters on the 29th that after re-examining the schedule, on March 2nd of the year, Mr. Abe, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Hosoda, former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura, and himself were scheduled to attend the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It was revealed that they were having a meeting.

He then explained that it was a meeting about candidate coordination for the House of Councilors election held in the summer of that year, adding, ``The itinerary came out and the theme was written, so I remember thinking, ``That's the kind of discussion we had at that time.'' He was recalled. There was no discussion of factional parties at all."

When asked by reporters if he hadn't checked the schedule until now, he explained, ``I was doing it because it was related to party tickets, so it wasn't included in the list.''

Furthermore, when asked about the consistency of his answer with the review committee, he answered, ``There is nothing wrong with that.The question was whether there was a meeting about faction party tickets in March at Mr. Abe's office in the Diet Building, so this meeting was not applicable.'' I won't.''

On the other hand, in response to a question about whether former Prime Minister Mori was involved in the circumstances that led to the kickbacks, he said, ``Since he was not involved in the repatriation in the first place, I am in no position to know who was involved and how.''

Mr. Nishimura: “We had a meeting in March of the year before, and there was no discussion of faction funds.”

Former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party's Abe faction, told reporters in the Diet that he had a four-person meeting with former Prime Minister Abe, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Hosoda, and former House of Councilors Secretary-General Seko in March of the year before. Did.

On the other hand, he said, ``This was a meeting about the House of Councilors election, and we didn't talk about factional funds at all.We didn't talk about repatriation at all.''

When he was questioned by the party, he was asked whether he had explained about this meeting, and he said, ``I was not listened to.''

Representative Izumi Ritmin “Politician not worthy of trust”

Izumi, the representative of the Constitutional Democratic Party, told reporters in Tokyo, ``If there had been a meeting in March a year ago, there would have been plenty of opportunities to explain things.It's only when we can no longer hide things that we don't speak about ourselves. "He has been telling lies and only saying things that are convenient for him. He is a politician who is not worthy of trust."