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10 million yen in secret funds monthly goes to prime minister: ex-chief cabinet secretary Nonaka Hiromu of the Liberal Democratic Party on a TV program broadcast on April 19-20 disclosed that when he served as chief cabinet secretary under the Obuchi Cabinet, he had given the prime minister 10 million yen a month from Cabinet Secretariat secret funds. Chief cabinet secretaries can freely use these funds, amounting to about 1.4 billion yen in tax money (as of FY 2002), without explaining how they are used. The money has reportedly been used to influence opposition party members when the government wants to pass important bills through the Diet. Except for the Japanese Communist Party members, a large number of opposition lawmakers most likely accepted the money. Nonaka further revealed that he also gave the LDP House of Representatives Diet Affairs Committee chair and the secretary general for the LDP in the House of Councilors 5 million yen a month in order to influence Diet steering. He admitted that ex-prime ministers had received one million yen twice a year as summer and year-end gifts and that all these were written in the instructions to chief cabinet secretaries. The fixed amount paid out from the secret funds accounted for 50 to 70 million yen a month, he said. Nonaka added that in accordance with the instructions, he presented a number of political commentators money. This statement shows that the government at that time was trying to manipulate public opinion by handing out money to media representatives. The Japanese Communist Party has long demanded that how the secret funds are being used should be made public. |
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