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2007 September 26 - October 2 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Fukuda’s office submitted dubious receipts attached to funds reports

The Akahata Sunday edition discovered more than 200 dubious receipts amounting to more than 10 million yen.

The September 30 issue of the Akahata Sunday edition reported that Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo had submitted many altered receipts attached to his office’s funds reports.

As this problem has become widely known, Fukuda on September 28 confirmed the correctness of the Akahata report, stating, “As the head of government, I am mortified by this.” Fukuda attributed the problem to clerical mistakes, but his explanation is far from convincing.

The altered receipts were discovered in the political funds reports that the Liberal Democratic Party Gunma Prefecture No.4 electoral district branch headed by Fukuda submitted in 2003, 2004, and 2005 as well as in its election campaign funds reports in 2003 and 2005.

On those receipts, payers were crossed out with double lines and then changed to read either the LDP branch or Fukuda’s election campaign office.

More than 200 such dubious receipts amounting to more than 10 million yen were found

In the case of a receipt issued by an exclusive restaurant in Tokyo dated April 30, 2004, for instance, the name of Fukuda’s fund management organization, “Chiyoda Keizai Konwa-kai”, was originally written as the payer. This name was crossed out and changed into the name of the LDP branch.

On a receipt for about 180,000 yen issued by a local liquor store and included in the November 2003 election campaign expenses, the payer’s name was changed from “Fukuda Keizai Kenkyu-kai” to Fukuda’s election campaign office.

Fukuda’s office admitted that it has altered receipts, stating, “Due to circumstances in which it is difficult to ask payees to change the receipts, this office altered the receipts.”

The prime minister on September 28 stated that it was clerical errors but not wrongdoing, adding, “I also need to strictly abide by the rules.”

In the Akahata Sunday edition, lawyer Sakaguchi Tokuo, co-representative of a group “Political Funds Ombudsman,” pointed out that attaching altered receipts to political funds reports is illegal and subject to punishment. He said, “It is impermissible for political party branches that receive government subsidies to betray the public by submitting such fraudulent receipts.”

Prime Minister Fukuda is responsible for disclosing the facts about his funds reports.