LDP’s Tokyo Assembly Members Underreport Fundraising Party Sales; Over ¥10 million Not Reported

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:12 JST, December 21, 2024

A group of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members from the Liberal Democratic Party are suspected of failing to report more than ¥10 million in income from sales of fundraising party tickets, according to informed sources.

About 10 assembly members from the LDP reportedly failed to list at least ¥1 million of income each in their political funds reports, the sources said. The funds were alleged to have been dubiously processed under a system of distributing income between the LDP group in the assembly and its members.

In a similar scandal in national politics, LDP lawmakers were allocated a quota of party tickets to sell by the faction they belonged to, and it had been common practice for lawmakers to receive kickbacks from sales in excess of those quotas.

With a Tokyo assembly election scheduled for summer, the revelation of the politics and money scandal involving the LDP group, the largest force in the metropolitan assembly comprising 30 members, could deal a serious blow to the party.

The LDP’s metropolitan assembly group has held two fundraising parties in the past five years — in December 2019 and in May 2022, in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. The group reported revenues totaling ¥62.46 million from the 2019 event and ¥61.12 million from the 2022 event.

According to the sources, the party tickets cost ¥20,000 each, and the LDP’s metropolitan assembly group assigned sales quotas to party assembly members of 50 tickets — a total of ¥1 million.

Party assembly members were reportedly given 100 party tickets in advance, 50 for their sales quota and an additional 50 for excess sales. While the revenue from the sales quota was paid to the LDP group, the assembly members allegedly retained revenue from excess sales.

About 20 members likely sold tickets in excess of their sales quota. Of those, about 10 members reportedly sold more than 100 tickets, and they evenly split the money earned from sales in excess of the 100 tickets with the LDP group. The members failed to record the revenue from sales made in excess of their quota, in a possible violation of the Political Funds Control Law.

“I’ve sold tickets as instructed [by the LDP group in the Tokyo assembly] and split the revenue. I used [the excess income] for meetings and transportation expenses,” a Tokyo assembly member who allegedly underreported income told the The Yomiuri Shimbun. It is believed that such a practice had been going on since at least the 2000s.

Due to the political funds scandal involving LDP factions, the party is investigating the Tokyo assembly members’ income from party ticket sales in cooperation with lawyers. The party plans to disclose the result as soon as investigations have been concluded and revise political funds reports.

The LDP continues to be on the back foot for both national and local elections due to the harsh public scrutiny.

“With the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election scheduled next year, we’re in an extremely unfavorable situation,” said an assembly member.