Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and some other members of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet said they have resumed holding political fundraising parties.
At a news conference on Thursday, Suzuki said he had such a party last weekend but added that it did not run counter to the ministerial code of conduct urging against hosting large parties because only about 250 people attended.
After it came to light that factions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party had exploited political fundraising parties to create slush funds, Kishida asked factions to refrain from holding such parties for the time being and he himself vowed to do so during his tenure as prime minister.
But Suzuki maintained that his latest party did not violate or evade any law.
“I will continue to carry out (fundraising through parties) in a restrained manner,” he said.
Health minister Keizo Takemi told a news conference on Aug. 2 that he held a fundraising party on July 29 “in accordance with existing law” because his campaign office was short of funds.
“I did not have a choice,” he stressed.
Internal affairs minister Takeaki Matsumoto was reported by the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine to have hosted a party on Saturday in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, part of which is his constituency. He avoided confirming the matter during a news conference on Thursday.
“In order to secure the necessary expenses, I will conduct activities including holding parties, in accordance with the ministerial code of conduct and based on law,” he noted.
“Each minister should make an appropriate decision by taking into account the purpose of the ministerial code,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a regular news conference.