Cabinet must bare all facts of secret funds

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Cabinet must bare all facts of secret funds
Akahata editorial (summary)

The Hatoyama Cabinet has submitted to the Diet a document acknowledging that, in the past, part of the Foreign Ministry’s secret funds had been offered to the prime minister’s official residence allegedly to be used for diplomatic purposes. However, the document states that such payments occurred in the past, and that no such a thing takes place at present. Thus, how the secret funds were actually spent is not known.

Secret funds are monies for which no accountability is required in the way it is spent. The Foreign Ministry has the largest budget for secret funds. Previously, it had 7 billion yen, one-third of which is said to have been offered to the prime minister’s official residence to be spent in an undisclosed manner. Presently, the Foreign Ministry is budgeted 5 billion yen in secret funds every year.

About 1.4 billion yen is allocated to the prime minister’s official residence as secret funds, most of which can be expended simply with the chief cabinet secretary’s signature, and no receipts have to be made public.

Ex-chief cabinet secretaries testified that secret funds were used to buy the favor of opposition party Dietmembers in the name of parting gifts when they travel abroad or of “presenting new suits” when the cabinet wanted an important bill passed through the Diet. These funds were sometimes used to buy the favor of the mass media. After the Japanese Communist Party made an issue of the secret funds in the Diet, the amount has been reduced, but the secret funds for the foreign ministry and for the cabinet continue to be budgeted, with no details known.

The Democratic Party of Japan in the past submitted a bill demanding that secret funds expenditures be put on the public record. However, the Hatoyama Cabinet has used cabinet secret funds many times already.

Secret funds, either earmarked for the foreign ministry or for the cabinet, are tax money paid by the people. Therefore, the expenditure of enormous amounts of money should not be continued without the people knowing who spent how much for what. The Hatoyama Cabinet should keep its public promise and reveal all facts about the secret funds.

- Akahata, February 15, 2010