LDP’s Koichi Hagiuda Discloses Failure to Report Donations

Jiji Press

12:18 JST, January 23, 2024

TOKYO, Jan. 22 (Jiji Press) — Koichi Hagiuda, former policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Monday that his political organization had failed to report ¥27.28 million in donations it received in 2018-2022 from the LDP’s largest faction.

“I sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of political distrust” as an executive of the faction, Hagiuda said at a press conference. The faction was once headed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Hagiuda said that he learned of his political organization’s failure to book the money from his staff after the scandal came to light. He declined to resign as a House of Representatives member or leave the LDP.

A chief accountant at the Abe faction was indicted without arrest Friday for failing to report hundreds of millions of yen in fundraising party revenue.

Seven faction executives, including Hagiuda and former LDP parliamentary affairs chief Tsuyoshi Takagi, averted indictment over the scandal, as public prosecutors found no evidence of collusion between them and the chief accountant.

Hagiuda said that he does not know the details of fundraising parties organized by the faction as he had never taken the post of secretary-general of the group.

He said that he used the unreported funds for dining with other lawmakers and media representatives and for purchasing gifts for foreign dignitaries on overseas trips.

Separately, Takagi said in a statement that his political organization had failed to report ¥10.19 million in donations from the Abe faction in 2018-2022.