MOSCOW: The opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan will submit a motion of no confidence against Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno suspected of receiving kickbacks during fundraising events for his faction, Sputnik quoted Japanese media report on Monday.
The motion will possibly be submitted before the end of Monday, Japanese TV channel NHK reported.
Meanwhile, Matsuno told reporters he was “planning to keep fulfilling his duties”.
Matsuno, as well as Japanese Minister of Economy, Yasutoshi Nishimura, and almost the entire leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are suspected of receiving over 10 million yen (US$69,400) over the past five years in the form of kickbacks from party funds.
Five factions of the ruling party allegedly received the money at various fundraising events. To prevent bribery, Japanese law demands that the names of donors and the amounts of the raised money be written in a reporting book, if the funds collected at one event exceed 200,000 yen. However, the ruling party allegedly did not reflect all the collected funds either in the income of the politicians or in its reporting book.
The alleged concealment of funds is currently being investigated by a special department of the Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office. After the end of the parliamentary session on Dec 13, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to reshuffle the government and the ruling party’s leadership.–Bernama-Sputnik
