Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been asked by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad to agree to voluntary questioning regarding dinners on the eve of his cherry blossom-viewing parties, sources said.
The squad is planning to build a case against Abe's state-funded first secretary on suspicion of violations of the Political Funds Control Law by not including required information in income and expenditure reports. It apparently decided it was necessary to confirm Abe's cognizance of the matter.
The secretary, who serves as the head of a political support group for Abe, is being investigated in connection with the dinners hosted by the group.
The special investigation squad believes that the total costs for the dinners, including payments from participants as well as supplements from Abe's side, need to be included in the income and expenditure reports of the political support group. The total amount of money that was not included in the report could reach about 40 million yen, sources said.
The dinners held at hotels in Tokyo had been organized by the political support group from 2013 to 2019 on the eve of cherry blossom-viewing parties. Each of Abe's supporters from his hometown paid 5,000 yen for food and drink. The first secretary was working mainly in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Abe's constituency, and was in charge of accounting at the support group until December 2016.
According to sources, the first secretary, however, had continued to be practically in charge of the accounting even after that date. The secretary is suspected of not recording the expenditures for the dinners despite knowing that a part of the expenditure had been supplemented.
"I should have written it in the income and expenditure report of the support group," the secretary told investigators from the squad, adding, "It was customary not to write it." The squad is carrying out a final investigation, including the continuation of questioning.
Regarding the allegation that Abe's side paid hotels to cover the shortfall in dinner expenses, the squad determined that the total amount for the dinners falls under the category of income and expenditure of the supporters association, as Abe's side received estimates from the hotels before the dinners.
The special investigation squad believes that a total of about 14 million yen, which had been paid by participants in the five years up to 2019, had to be recorded in both the income and expenditure categories. It also believes that the more than 8 million yen spent to make up for the shortfall in payments made by participants should have been included in the expenditures.
In addition to these, the squad is also investigating the income used to make up for the loss, believing that it should have been recorded as the income of the support group.
Receipts were issued by the hotels to the fund management organization called Shinwakai headed by Abe. However, the squad is believed to have concluded that the supporter group should be responsible for accounting for the dinners because it was organized by the group.
"There was absolutely no income or disbursement by the support group, so it is not necessary to include it on the political funding report," Abe said in the Diet during his term as prime minister, adding, "There is no truth to the claim that my office covered the difference."
But an Abe aide told The Yomiuri Shimbun on Nov. 24 that an official at Abe's office had explained to the former prime minister falsely by saying the office had "made no expenditures" to cover the cost shortfall for the dinners.
The special investigation squad is believed to be planning to ask Abe to explain the situation.
In addition to the first secretary, Abe is among those subject to criminal complaints filed by civic groups on suspicion of violating laws including the Political Funds Control Law.
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