December 22 – The Japan Broadcasting Association reported on the 22nd that the Tokyo Prosecutors in Tokyo, Japan, questioned Shinzo Abe with his consent on the 21st. The case is directed against the secretary under investigation and involves unreported political funding issues.
According to the report, a secretary of Shinzo Abe and the head of the organization supporting Shinzo Abe have been investigated by prosecutors for alleged violations of the Political Fund Control Law. The secretary is suspected of not reporting the source of income and the whereabouts of expenditure related to the repeated hospitality of Abe supporters.
From 2013 to 2019, the Japanese political group Shinzo Abe Support Association hosted Abe supporters many times. In the past few years, the total cost of the party has exceeded 190,000 US dollars, and Shinzo Abe has paid at least 77,000 US dollars.
However, the supporting organizations did not mention relevant information about the payment of the parties in their report on the political fund.
Shinzo Abe has repeatedly claimed in the Diet of Japan that there is no public subsidy for the party expenses. In November 2020, the special search department of the Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office obtained evidence from Shinzo Abe’s parliamentary secretary and members of the support organization.
People around Shinzo Abe said that when Shinzo Abe’s secretary voluntarily questioned, he admitted that he had not recorded the report on the income and expenditure of political funds due to negligence. Colleagues, Shinzo Abe’s staff have decided that it is inevitable to let Shinzo Abe state the opposite of the facts, because they did not mention any records of the parties concerned in the funding report.
According to the report, the prosecution may have asked Shinzo Abe if he knew the funding report and other details; Shinzo Abe has also denied any involvement. Therefore, it is difficult for the prosecution to bring a lawsuit against Shinzo Abe himself.
For alleged violations of the Political Funds Control Act, prosecutors are expected to prosecute Shinzo Abe’s secretary as early as the end of 2020.
