Farm Minister Akagi in second office expenditure scandal

A political organization affiliated with Farm Minister Norihiko Akagi failed to report the relocation of one of its offices when it moved from Tokyo to Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 1996, and has since then filed some 12.15 million yen in operating expenses, the Asahi Shimbun reports. This is the second such scandal to hit the minister this month, now only days ahead of the July 29 Upper House election.

The organization, called “The Tsukuba Policy Research Group” was founded in February 1989, and had registered an office in Minato Ward, Tokyo as it’s main office until the group was disbanded in 2004, but in actuality, the group had relocated their office to Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, and from 2000 the group’s main office was Akagi’s treasurer’s Shimotsuma home.

Without reporting the relocation, the group continued to file some 12.15 million yen in personnel, utility, water and equipment costs until 2003.

Akagi’s office responded to allegations of improper filing, saying that the research group was a support group founded by local influentials. “In 1996, they left their Shimbashi office and the later expenditures come from the activities the group held at their Shimotsuma office,” and added: “The treasurer had forgotten to register the move. We have sternly cautioned him so that a similar mistake won’t happen twice.“

A Kyodo News report suggested Akagi told reporters at his residence in Tokyo that he had not known about the existance of the group until asked about the matter by the press.

A former representative of the group said it had been almost entirely dormant in the last few years, casting doubts on the scale of the expenditures.

The farm minister is since two weaks ago embroiled in allegations saying one of his main support groups filed multi-million yen expenditures from a ficticous office, registered in Akagi’s father’s house. The parents initially denied their home had been used as an office, but later retracted these comments. The opposition has been calling for expenditure receipts to be made official, but the minister has refused.

This is the latest in a string of scandals to hit Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s Cabinet just ahead of the important July 29 Upper House election.

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One response to “Farm Minister Akagi in second office expenditure scandal”

Farm Minister Akagi still refuses to make receipts official - Japan News Review, Jul 24 at 5:12 pm :

[…] a Cabinet meeting, Farm Minister Norihiko Akagi again explained why his political support group claimed office expenses in Minato Ward, Tokyo for several years even after the group had moved out of the […]