LDP Abe Faction Logs 209-M.-Yen Party Income in 2023

   Tokyo, Nov. 29 (Jiji Press)--Income from fundraising party ticket sales by a ruling Liberal Democratic Party faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reached 209.93 million yen in 2023, up 2.2-fold from the initially reported amount for the previous year, according to the faction's latest political funds report released Friday.
    The sharp growth can be traced to the Abe faction recording all proceeds from party ticket sales in the 2023 report, made public by the internal affairs ministry, after the revelation of the then largest intraparty group's long-standing practice of giving unstated kickbacks to member lawmakers who sold more tickets than they were asked to, people familiar with the matter said.
    The Abe faction's initial 2022 report, released on Nov. 24, 2023, around the time that Japan's parliament began discussing the issue of five LDP factions' failures to fully log revenues from fundraising party tickets sales, showed that its ticket sales income amounted to 94.8 million yen.
    In January this year, the faction added 102.82 million yen to the original amount when correcting the report in the wake of Tokyo public prosecutors launching investigations into slush fund allegations against it.
   The group's 2023 report also showed that the overall revenues including donations reached 302.55 million yen, up 62.4 pct from the initial 2022 figure of 186.35 million yen.

(2024/11/29-19:11)

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