August 29&30, 2019

An Abe Cabinet member on August 28 resigned for his alleged involvement in a “money-for-politics” scandal.

This indicates that the corruptive practice of accepting money in return of using political influence has become common among Abe Cabinet members.

The person in question is Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Ueno Hiroshi who is also a Liberal Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives. Last week, the popular weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that Ueno allegedly received money from a Tokyo-based staffing agency as a reward for making an inquiry to the Justice Ministry regarding an application for working visas which the company filed for its foreign employees. The weekly magazine also published the audio data of this report.

Lawmakers and their secretaries are prohibited by law from receiving money in exchange for using political influence on government ministries.

Ueno explained that the reason for his resignation is that the media report gave a false impression to the public, and insisted that he did not do anything wrongful as reported in the magazine while providing no convincing argument otherwise.

The LDP lawmaker, as a member of the Abe Cabinet promoting the expansion of acceptance of foreign workers, played the leading role in a Labor Ministry panel discussing relaxation of rules on the use of foreign trainees.

Asked by reporters about Ueno’s resignation, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on August 28 said that it is unacceptable to draw a curtain on the allegation with Ueno’s departure from the Abe Cabinet and stressed the need for thorough investigations to reveal the whole picture of the scandal. He also pointed out that Prime Minister Abe should take responsibility for appointing Ueno.

Past related article:
> Abe’s policy speech completely dodges scandals both new and old [October 25, 2018]