Japan's ruling party lawmaker arrested over political funding scandal

Prosecutors suspect that Ikeda Yoshitaka, a 57-year-old member of the House of Representatives, received a total of 48.26 million yen ($333,000) over five years, through 2022, from slush funds created by the faction.

Ikeda's policy secretary, Kakinuma Kazuhiro, 45, was also arrested. Both are accused of failing to report the amount of money Ikeda received in political fundraising reports. Prosecutors decided to arrest Ikeda because they believed he might hide or destroy evidence.

Japanese lawmaker Ikeda Yoshitaka

Kyodo News Screenshot

Prosecutors allege that Mr Ikeda colluded with secretary Kakinuma, who was responsible for preparing reports on income and expenditure.

The lawmakers could be charged with a crime if they are found to have colluded with an accountant in charge. Kakinuma was responsible for reporting to Mr Ikeda.

Japanese law requires accountants to file income and expense reports, or face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 1 million yen.

Kyodo News, citing several sources familiar with the matter, reported that the inner-party group allegedly failed to report hundreds of millions of yen in party fundraising revenue in its political fund reports. The money was transferred to group members, and is believed to total about 500 million yen over a five-year period through 2022, the sources said.

After MP Ikeda was arrested, his party's internal group issued an apology and said it would cooperate with the investigation, according to Kyodo News.

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