Prosecutors Raid Offices of LDP Lawmaker Horii

Jiji Press

17:29 JST, July 18, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Public prosecutors on Thursday raided the offices of House of Representatives lawmaker Manabu Horii of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for allegedly giving funeral money to voters in his constituency in Hokkaido.

Investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office raided the 52-year-old Lower House member’s offices in Tokyo and the Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, for a possible violation of the public offices election law.

Horii, elected from the Lower House’s Hokkaido proportional representation bloc, later quit the LDP.

He is suspected of sending his secretary and others to offer condolence money in his name to voters in the Lower House’s Hokkaido No. 9 constituency around 2022, people familiar with the matter said.

The total amount of illegal donations may be hundreds of thousands of yen, the people said.

Horii, a former member of a now-defunct LDP faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, failed to report ¥21.96 million in kickbacks from the faction between 2018 and 2022. He was suspended in April from party executive posts for a year as punishment, and was accused of violating the political funds control law the following month.

Prosecutors believe that the unreported kickbacks may have been used for the funeral money.

Horii’s office has declined to comment on the matter.

“It is extremely regrettable that we have reached a situation like this,” LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi said in a statement. “I hope Horii fulfills his accountability.”

Horii, a former Olympic bronze medalist in the speedskating, was first elected to the Lower House in 2012. He last month said that he will not seek re-election but ruled out leaving the LDP or stepping down as lawmaker.