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2024 September 4 - 10 TOP3 [POLITICS]

JCP EC Chair Tamura criticizes LDP presidential election for not touching on slush-fund issue

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko at a press conference held in the Diet building on September 5, commenting on the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, said that the race is turning into an event to preserve money-tainted LDP politicians and old-fashioned LDP politics.

She noted that none of the LDP lawmakers who are reportedly about to file their candidacy are saying anything about the party’s off-the-book fund allegations.

Tamura said, “They cannot even say whether they will, if elected, give an official LDP ticket to candidates in the upcoming general election who were allegedly involved in the creation of kickback money, out of desire to win support from them in the LDP presidential election.”

She continued, “We have been pointing out that political fundraising parties are used as a loophole to receive a disguised type of political donations from businesses and other interest groups, and that closing this loophole will resolve the money-for-politics problem to a large degree.”

Nevertheless, she added, all of the LDP presidential candidates are avoiding references to fundraising parties. She criticized the LDP election for party president itself, saying that it has become a “laundering of slush-fund” scheme to exonerate the LDP Dietmembers involved in the creation of the unreported funds.

The Mainichi Shimbun article on September 2 reported that a secretary to a former LDP Lower House representative, who had been fined for violating the Political Funds Control Law, had given testimony admitting to the existence of slush funds in the LDP Aso faction.

Regarding this report, Tamura said that the Akahata Sunday edition already reported on the Aso faction’s backdoor money in December of last year and again in March of this year. She criticized Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and the LDP for ignoring the Akahata scoop and neglecting to investigate the allegations and covering up the Aso faction’s finance scandal.