Fund Scandal Hits New Japanese Parliamentary Vice Land Minister

October 15, 2018

Tokyo- Groups related to Shozo Kudo, a new Japanese parliamentary vice land minister, have failed to book flows of funds from large-scale gatherings that charged fees for participants in their political fund reports, it was learned Monday.

This could amount to violation of the political funds control law, political analysts said.

Through his office last month, Kudo, a House of Representatives lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, reported corrections to the documents to the election board of Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, which includes his constituency for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament.

Kudo, 53, took up his current post of parliamentary vice minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism in a cabinet reshuffle early this month.

According to Kudo's official website, his political fund management group held fee-charging meetings in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi, in 2014 and 2015, and an LDP branch in Aichi, headed by Kudo, held a similar gathering in the city in 2014.

Each of the gatherings brought together a number of participants, who were wined and dined.

But the groups' political fund reports initially had no reference to flows of funds related to the events, and the corrections were made on Sept. 5, this year, informed sources said.

In the corrections, the political fund management body additionally reported a total of 1,015,000 yen in revenue from two plenary meetings held in 2014 and 1.9 million yen from a 2015 meeting for explaining Kudo's political activities, while the LDP branch reported nearly 50,000 yen in expenses, according to the sources.

"As a politician, Kudo should fully explain the matter," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference on Monday.

Kudo offered an apology in talks with reporters in Tokyo the same day.

While noting that he is responsible for failing to check the fund reports himself, Kudo denied an intention to resign from the post of parliamentary vice minister. "I will continue to fully perform my job," he said.

Kudo, a native of Nagoya, won a parliamentary seat for the first time in the 2012 Lower House election. He has been elected to the chamber three times. Before becoming a lawmaker, he served as a member of the Nagoya municipal assembly. Jiji Press