Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2020 November 18 - 24 [POLITICS]

More than \8.6 billion in secret funds went to Suga during his tenure as chief cabinet secretary

The Cabinet Secretariat used a total of more than 8.61 billion yen in secret funds for seven years from fiscal 2013, Akahata learned on November 23 from materials it obtained through an information disclosure request.

The Cabinet Secretariat's secret funds do not need to be reported to the Board of Audit.

Suga, from December 2012 until September this year, served as chief cabinet secretary under the Abe Cabinet. During his tenure in office, he received 7.8 billion yen for the "promotion of policies" out of the 8.61-billion-yen confidential funds or about 1.11 billion yen a year on average, the money that the Cabinet Secretariat can freely use and the receipts for which are not required.

In short, 90.5% of the state secret funds went to Suga. He is the only person who knows for what purpose and to whom the money was dispursed.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ordered a partial release of the documents suggesting what the money was used for. At that time, a plaintiff civic organization and its lawyers demanded that Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga radically reexamine the secret funds system, proposing that the Cabinet not disburse the funds to politicians, bureaucrats, journalists, or political commentators; set the non-disclosure period of documents of the use of the funds "in accordance with the degree of confidentiality"; and release these documents after the period expires.

Suga, however, paid no heed to their proposal.