Japan Press Weekly

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2023 November 29 - December 5 [POLITICS]

Tamura reveals that PM Kishida earns 90% return from fundraising parties

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Tamura Tomoko at a House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting on November 28 revealed that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio earned a 90% return from his fundraising parties in 2022.

The revelation drew much attention from the media reporting “JCP points out LDP enjoys profit margins of 90% from ticket sales for fundraising parties.”

The Political Funds Control Act obliges political bodies to write down in their balance sheet reports on political funds the corporate names which provided donations of more than 50,000 yen a year. However, this is not the case for less than 200,000 yen purchases of ticket for one fundraising party. Therefore, as a matter of fact, several subsidiaries of one large corporation buy party tickets at or less than 200,000 yen.

According to Tamura, PM Kishida in 2022 held six fundraising parties and each party yielded more than 10 million yen in income. The ratio of spending to the total ticket sales is only 10%, and his fundraising parties generate 90% returns.

The Political Funds Control Act allows political donations from corporations and organizations only for political parties and political funds management bodies.

Tamura stated that the money made from ticket sales, in effect, constitutes “political donations” and that it is considered to be law-evasive political donations from corporations and organizations.

She pointed out that what corporations expect is the benefit in return for their purchase of politicians’ fundraising party tickets. She criticized these kind of parties for distorting policies in the interest of the business community.

Sources close to the LDP one after another blew the whistle on “undisclosed funds” by underreporting the income from ticket sales for fundraising parties.

In response to Tamura, PM Kishida answered that parties hosted by his faction do not raise undisclosed funds. However, as for other LDP factions, he could not deny the possibility of kickback money or misappropriation by not accurately stating amounts received in political funds reports.

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It was learned on December 1 that the largest LDP faction “Seiwakai” or the Abe faction is suspected of flowing back off-the-books funds to politicians belonging to the faction who exceeded their ticket sales quotas. Reportedly, the sum of such money reaches more than 100 million yen in five years to 2022.

The special investigators of the Tokyo Prosecutors Public Office are questioning people involved in the Abe faction about the kickback money on a voluntary basis. It is said that they are investigating into the flow of funds as a possible violation of the Political Funds Control Act.