LDP's Shimomura Denies Order to Resume Kickbacks

   Tokyo, May 27 (Jiji Press)--Hakubun Shimomura, former policy chief of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Tuesday that he did not request the resumption of kickback practices at an LDP faction after they were once suspended in April 2022.
   Speaking as a witness at a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japanese parliament, Shimomura claimed that the resumption was not decided at an executive meeting in August 2022.
   In a hearing in February, a former chief accountant of the now-defunct faction once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that "a faction executive" asked for the restart of the kickback scheme in July 2022 and the resumption was decided at an executive meeting in August of the same year.
   The testimonies of the former chief accountant and Shimomura, whom the leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and others regard as "the faction executive" in question, conflicted with each other.
   According to Shimomura's explanation, a faction member called for kickbacks of money exceeding their quotas in their fundraising ticket sales after a fundraising party was held in May 2022.

(2025/05/27-21:27)