June 3, 2014
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2014 May 28 - June 3 [POLITICS]
Citizens sue ex-Your Party head over political funds scandal |
The complainants are 16 people, including Kobe Gakuin University Professor Kamiwaki Hiroshi, also a co-representative of the Political Funds Ombudsman.
The bill of complaint claims that even though ex-Your Party Chair Watanabe Yoshimi received an enormous amount of political funds from a private company’s president, he failed to report it to state authorities.
Shukan Shincho, a popular Japanese weekly, reported in March that Watanabe borrowed 300 million yen right before the 2010 Upper House election and 500 million yen just before the 2012 Lower House election from Yoshida Yoshiaki, the president of the cosmetics company, DHC. As neither Watanabe’s campaign finance records nor his party’s political funds report accurately accounted for the loan of 800 million yen, the suspicion that the loan was a part of slush funds grew among the general public. The following month, Watanabe resigned as party leader.
The plaintiffs pointed to the fact that just prior to the 2012 general election Watanabe told Yoshida that he needs 500 million yen to run 60 candidates in the election. They argued that Watanabe’s party violated the Political Funds Control Law because it reported only a half of the 500 million yen.
They also said that if the former party head had borrowed the remaining 250 million yen for his own election campaign, he should have entered it in his campaign funds report.
The accusers criticized Watanabe for insisting that the money was a “personal loan” and he “never used” it for political activities, demanding a thorough investigation into the money scandal.
Past related article:
> Your Party should account for Y800 million received: JCP Yamashita [April 8, 2014]
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