November 14, 2015
In the campaign for the double election for Osaka governor and Osaka city mayor slated for November 22, the ruling “Osaka Ishin no Kai” party advocates a political reform to eliminate wastes of taxpayer money. However, many lawmakers of the party are tarnished by money scandals.
Incumbent Governor Matsui Ichiro, also the party’s secretary-general, stressed in his speech on October 25, “It is necessary to reconsider how taxes should be used. To achieve this, we have to avoid wastefulness.”
A few days later, the audit committee of Sakai City in Osaka urged city assemblyperson Kobayashi Yoshika, a member of the Ishin no Kai, to return to the city 10.4 million yen in the political affairs research allowance granted to her. Kobayashi insisted that she had spent the amount issuing a leaflet on her political activities, but later it turned out that the leaflet was neither printed nor distributed.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Osaka City Assembly member Ito Yoshika, also a member of the party, had used the research grants to pay off the loan for her Lexus, a luxury car produced by Toyota. Ito was persuaded to return the subsidies.
Even though Governor Matsui is boasting about abolishing the retirement allowance system for the governor, he is being deceptive. In fact, Matsui secures his retirement benefits totaling nearly 6.3 million yen by adding it to his monthly pay. The total amount of money paid to Matsui during his four-year term will increase by 3.5 million yen because the amount of bonuses given twice a year is calculated based on monthly pay.
As a centerpiece of their “reform” policies, Governor Matsui and Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru, the party leader, introduced a program to appoint private citizens as public school principals.
Under the program, a 38-year-old man, who had been an employee of a foreign-owned securities company, passed the screening and became the principal of a public elementary school in Osaka City. Three months later, in the middle of the first term, he abruptly quit his job. Another man appointed as principal of Hirakata Prefectural High School, who used to work for Japan Airlines (JAL), was arrested on the charge of shoplifting Japanese sweets from a supermarket.
The prefectural government led by the Ishin no Kai has slashed the budgets for welfare and medical services by 155 billion yen over the past seven years. Mayor Hashimoto has also reduced the budgets for various social services for citizens by 38 billion yen in three years.
The need now is to put an end to the party’s harmful policies by delivering a crushing blow to their candidates in the upcoming double election.
Past related article:
> JCP will support anti-Hashimoto candidate in Osaka gubernatorial race [October 16, 2015]
Incumbent Governor Matsui Ichiro, also the party’s secretary-general, stressed in his speech on October 25, “It is necessary to reconsider how taxes should be used. To achieve this, we have to avoid wastefulness.”
A few days later, the audit committee of Sakai City in Osaka urged city assemblyperson Kobayashi Yoshika, a member of the Ishin no Kai, to return to the city 10.4 million yen in the political affairs research allowance granted to her. Kobayashi insisted that she had spent the amount issuing a leaflet on her political activities, but later it turned out that the leaflet was neither printed nor distributed.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Osaka City Assembly member Ito Yoshika, also a member of the party, had used the research grants to pay off the loan for her Lexus, a luxury car produced by Toyota. Ito was persuaded to return the subsidies.
Even though Governor Matsui is boasting about abolishing the retirement allowance system for the governor, he is being deceptive. In fact, Matsui secures his retirement benefits totaling nearly 6.3 million yen by adding it to his monthly pay. The total amount of money paid to Matsui during his four-year term will increase by 3.5 million yen because the amount of bonuses given twice a year is calculated based on monthly pay.
As a centerpiece of their “reform” policies, Governor Matsui and Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru, the party leader, introduced a program to appoint private citizens as public school principals.
Under the program, a 38-year-old man, who had been an employee of a foreign-owned securities company, passed the screening and became the principal of a public elementary school in Osaka City. Three months later, in the middle of the first term, he abruptly quit his job. Another man appointed as principal of Hirakata Prefectural High School, who used to work for Japan Airlines (JAL), was arrested on the charge of shoplifting Japanese sweets from a supermarket.
The prefectural government led by the Ishin no Kai has slashed the budgets for welfare and medical services by 155 billion yen over the past seven years. Mayor Hashimoto has also reduced the budgets for various social services for citizens by 38 billion yen in three years.
The need now is to put an end to the party’s harmful policies by delivering a crushing blow to their candidates in the upcoming double election.
Past related article:
> JCP will support anti-Hashimoto candidate in Osaka gubernatorial race [October 16, 2015]
