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2024 October 2 - 8 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Akahata Sunday edition exclusively reveals Ishiba faction’s off-the-book fund scandal

Japanese Communist Party Central Committee Chair Shii Kazuo on October 2 at a street speech rally held in Chiba City (Chiba Pref.) said that the latest Akahata Sunday edition revealed that a Liberal Democratic Party faction led by newly-elected LDP President Ishiba Shigeru allegedly created slush funds through off-the-book revenues from fundraising party ticket sales.

According to the October 6 issue of the Sunday Akahata, the Ishiba faction, known as Suigetsu-kai, which was disbanded in September for six years up to 2021 did not report revenues from fundraiser tickets totaling 1.4 million yen. The Sunday Akahata alleged that the Ishiba-led faction most likely kept the money as slush funds.

A political league of the National Federation of Health Insurance Societies between 2015 and 2021 purchased fundraising tickets amounting to 2.74 million yen. However, the amount of ticket sales registered in Suigetsu-kai’s political fund reports was 1.34 million yen.

Ishiba has claimed that his faction has provided proper reports on income and expenditure regarding fundraising events. Furthermore, during the LDP presidential election campaign, Ishiba expressed that if elected, he would fulfill his responsibility to explain to the general public about the LDP’s slush fund scandal.

JCP CC Chair Shii at the street speech rally pointed out that Ishiba declared that he will conduct investigations of new facts that came to light, and said, “If so, he should reinvestigate the scandal thoroughly and make public the truth.”