Japan’s LDP Nikai Faction Revises Political Funding Report; Underreported ¥210 Million over 3 Years

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:34 JST, January 19, 2024

The Liberal Democratic Party’s Nikai faction, led by former Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, made corrections to its political funding report, increasing the amount of income by about ¥210 million for 2020 to 2022. The faction submitted this amendment to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry on Thursday.

The faction underreported about ¥136.14 million of revenue from its fundraising parties over the three years. The corrections included an increase of ¥73.62 million in the fund carried over from the years prior to 2020, so the amount that the faction failed to report totaled ¥213.7 million, the revised report said.

The report also stated that the faction had made a total of ¥65.33 million in donations to fund management organizations represented by seven faction members including Nikai and other incumbent and former lawmakers. This appears to be kickbacks given to the faction’s Diet members equal to the amount by which they exceeded their quota for selling tickets for fundraising parties.