All Komei members in a Tokyo ward Assembly resigned for misuse of tax money

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All Komei members in a Tokyo ward Assembly resigned for misuse of tax money

In Meguro Ward in Tokyo, all six Komei Party Ward Assembly members resigned on November 30 due to the fact that they had misused tax money allocated to them as policy research funds.

Residents are demanding that the Komei Party be held accountable, apologize, and repay the money used in the past.

On November 24, the Komei Party Meguro Ward Assembly members group admitted to improper expenditures, and paid back to the ward part of its 2005 policy research fund of 7.73 million yen.

It has been revealed that they also misused public money in FY 2002 and FY 2003, but they have not yet repaid the money.

Bill-payment receipts show a surprising amount of sloppy expenditures.

Their policy research expenditures included vehicle inspections and repair expenses for the assembly members' private cars that amounted to 130,000 yen in FY 2005. Expenses for car washes and interior cleaning as well as battery changes were also paid by the tax. Car navigation devices were bought and listed as office equipment.

Some expenses are strongly suspected as being false. A receipt issued by a taxi company in Okinawa was used for claiming taxi fare for a trip in the Tokyo Metropolitan area.

Most of the expenses for meetings were used for wining and dining. In FY 2005, they spent 1.46 million yen for meetings, 98 percent of which was for wining and dining. The restaurants used ranged from a famous Chinese restaurant in Yokohama, a local cuisine restaurant in Yamanashi Prefecture, a blowfish restaurant, and two Chinese soup noodle shops.

During the campaign for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election polled on July 3, 2005, they spent funds for meals every day. On October 30, 2003 in the middle of the campaign for the general election, 98,000 yen was spent for lunches and 7,000 yen was used for sweets. How could the six members eat so much? It is suspected that part of the money was spent for supporters and canvassers in violation of the Public Offices Election Law.

Expenses that are believed to be the cost for inviting supporters to a group bus tour were also included in the policy research expenditure. A woman assembly member asked for 30,000 yen as museum entrance fees for 50 people and 75,000 yen for lunches, plus the cost for the bus tour to Yamanashi Prefecture. In FY 2002, she spent 30,000 yen to buy sponge cakes and other items at Nagasaki airport and Okayama airport souvenir shops.

The Meguro ward government, which the Komei Party has supported as part of the ruling majority, abolished the 2,000 yen monthly subsidy for telephone expenses of low income families, cut subsidies for taxi fares for the disabled, and increased burdens on users of after-school child care centers.

Calling on the ward assembly and government to stop the wasteful expenses of tax money and increase expenditures for improving living conditions of the residents, the Japanese Communist Party Meguro Ward Assembly members group has repeatedly proposed changes in the way political research funds are used, to stop providing lunches to assembly members, and to stop overseas "inspection" tours.

The JCP group also proposed to the assembly steering committee to oblige all members to submit receipts, which has been implemented since FY 2001.

Nozawa Mariko, the JCP Meguro Ward Assembly members' group secretary general, at the plenary session on November 30 pointed out that the question is not solved just by the Komei assembly members returning the money and resigning, and emphasized that the Komei Party has the responsibility to fulfill its accountability to the residents.
- Akahata, December 7, 2006