Japan Press Weekly

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2019 September 18 - 24 [POLITICS]

Education minister allegedly received political donations in violation of the law

Akahata on September 23 reported on an allegation that Education Minister Hagiuda Koichi received political donations in violation of the Political Funds Control Act during his campaigning for the House of Representatives election in 2017.

Hagiuda, who is Prime Minister Abe’s closest aide, represents the anti-constitutional nature of the Abe administration. He, for example, has made a remark that proposes changing the Lower House speaker in order to move forward Diet discussions on constitutional revision. In the latest Cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed the head of the Education Ministry.

Akahata surveyed a political funds report submitted by a Liberal Democratic Party branch headed by Hagiuda. According to the report, between October 10, 2017, the opening day of official campaigning for the general election, and October 22, 2017, the voting day, Hagiuda’s local LDP branch collected 18.74 million yen in political donations from companies and organizations, and gave 16 million yen of the collected money as a contribution to Hagiuda’s campaign headquarters.

Meanwhile, in response to Akahata inquiries, company owners who made monetary contributions to the LDP branch said that they recognized that their money was used to help Hagiuda win the general election. Akahata believes that the LDP branch received corporate donations in place of Hagiuda during the general election campaign with the aim of circumventing the political funds control law banning political donations to a candidate for elective public office.

Akahata pointed out that a campaign finance report submitted by Hagiuda’s campaign headquarters after the 2017 general election failed to disclose the names of corporate donors of the 16 million yen in donations to Hagiuda. This may constitute a violation of the Public Offices Election Act, Akahata reported.

Past related article:
> LDP frustrated by deadlocked talks on constitutional revision [August 1, 2019]