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TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Public prosecutors Tuesday searched an office of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Megumi Hirose and other related locations, including her home in Tokyo, on suspicion of fraud over the salary for a publicly paid secretary to the lawmaker.
Hirose, 58, a member of the House of Councillors, is suspected of defrauding the government of several million yen in salary for her second public secretary, who was allegedly not working.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is expected to investigate the real work status of the secretary and the flow of funds related to her salary by analyzing documents seized during the search and interviewing Hirose on a voluntary basis.
Hirose told reporters, “I’ve yet to understand the circumstances and I’ll respond to the situation once I know exactly what happened.”
The lawmaker is believed to have reported the wife of her first public secretary as her second secretary from around 2022 to 2023, but the wife did not actually work as a secretary, according to sources familiar with the situation.
When the allegation over the secretary pay was reported in a weekly magazine in March this year, Hirose said on her official website that her second secretary mainly worked from home on weekdays.
