February 19, 2025

Japanese Communist Parry lawmaker Tamura Takaaki on February 18 at a press conference in the Diet building demanded that House of Representatives Budget Committee Chair Azumi Jun retract his decision and hold a public hearing regarding the LDP slush-fund scandal with attendance of all political parties in the Budget Committee.

At a meeting of Budget Committee board members on the day, the Liberal Democratic Party stated that the ex-chief accountant of the now-defunct LDP Abe faction, Matsumoto Jun’ichiro, intends to accept the committee’s request for his unsworn testimony when a closed-door hearing is held by committee board members.

Budget Committee Chair Azumi (lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan), in line with Matsumoto’s demand, decided to hold a closed-door hearing at a Tokyo hotel. Azumi also decided that participants in the hearing will be limited to board members (lawmakers of the LDP, CDPJ, the “Ishin” party, and the Democratic Party for the People), which means that observer members (the JCP and the Komei and Reiwa parties) will be excluded from the hearing.

The Lower House Budget Committee in January decided to summon Matsumoto as an unsworn witness by a majority vote of opposition parties.

At the Budget Committee board members’ meeting, JCP Tamura protested against Azumi’s decision and pointed out that Matsumoto is not in a position to set out conditions for holding a hearing. Tamura said that it is unacceptable for the committee chair not to allow some opposition parties in the Budget Committee to attend a hearing.

Furthermore, Tamura criticized Azumi’s decision as an intentional exclusion of the JCP which has been playing a major role in Diet questioning on this matter. He claimed that a closed-door hearing with a limited number of participants will not work to disclose the whole truth behind the slush-fund scandal and will fail to gain public understanding. He demanded that a hearing be conducted with all political parties in the Budget Committee participating.

Past related article:
> Opposition parties in unison vote for summoning of ex-Abe faction’s treasurer as unsworn witness [January 31, 2025]