Critics point out that her ambiguity towards the scandal shows a limited will to push for a comprehensive reform.
Buenos Aires, Dec 4 (NA) – The Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, received a criminal complaint on Thursday for allegedly receiving a political donation from a company that exceeded the legal maximum limit, according to a Xinhua cable service to which the Argentine News Agency is subscribed.
The complaint, filed by constitutional law professor Hiroshi Kamiwaki of Kobe Gakuin University, announced that a local branch of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Nara prefecture, represented by Takaichi, received a donation of 10 million yen ($64,400) in August 2024, exceeding the 7.5 million yen limit stipulated by the political funding control law for a donor of that size.
Similar Case
In another similar case, the LDP branch in Kanagawa prefecture, led by Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, received a 10 million yen donation from another company, also exceeding the 7.5 million yen limit.
Kamiwaki filed a separate lawsuit regarding this irregularity on Wednesday.
Another Scandal
These cases add to the illegal political funding scandal of the ruling LDP, uncovered in 2023, in which some party factions are said to have instructed party lawmakers to sell political fundraising tickets for the party above their allocated quotas, without recording the amount as income in their political funding reports, thereby transferring the surplus to lawmakers in the form of bribes, creating funds outside official accounting.
Among the high-ranking officials appointed by Takaichi after taking office as Prime Minister in October, seven were linked to the LDP's illegal political funding scandal.
