A branch of Nippon Ishin no Kai, the party that has made "self-sacrificing reform" its slogan, routed public money to the relatives of its own candidates through campaign car rentals, Weekly Post reported. The magazine examined contract filings for campaign vehicles held by the Kyoto prefectural election commission and found the practice at the Kyoto Ishin no Kai, the party's Kyoto prefectural chapter.
Nippon Ishin agreed with the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party for the People to cut 31 proportional representation seats in the House of Representatives. Party leader Hirofumi Yoshimura called it "the largest seat reduction since the war," and one estimate puts the national saving at about ¥2 billion.
The magazine said it went back five years and checked every candidate, including those from other parties, and found campaign-car payments to relatives only among Ishin candidates. The party headquarters told Weekly Post that an internal rule has banned the practice since this year.
A ¥144,900 rental from a relative
One of those named is Shiho Tanaka, a Kyoto prefectural assembly member and vice chair of the chapter's general affairs committee. According to the filed contract, Tanaka rented a minivehicle from a relative for the prefectural assembly election on April 9, 2023, her first successful run, and ¥144,900 was paid from public funds.
Two weeks later, the same relative's minivehicle was lent to an Ishin candidate in the Yawata city assembly election, and ¥112,700 was paid from public funds, the filing shows.
Election subsidies and the Hyogo case
National and local elections operate under a system called senkyo koei, or "election public management," in which the state and local governments cover set amounts of campaign spending, including election postcards, posters and campaign car rentals. The magazine's findings describe Ishin members using that system to send public money to relatives, or to earn money by renting to other candidates.
The issue is not confined to Kyoto. In July, Takashi Kado, a Hyogo prefectural assembly member from the party, was expelled after he ran an unlicensed car rental business and leased campaign cars to at least seven Ishin candidates in national and prefectural elections, collecting rental fees from public funds.
Kado also faces suspicion of violating Article 80 of the Road Transport Act, which covers unlicensed rental operations. The Kinki District Transport Bureau confirmed it is questioning him. "We are currently conducting voluntary interviews over the Article 80 Road Transport Act issue," an official in its automobile transport department said.
Separately, Tsutomu Fujita, a co-leader of the party, drew criticism for spending large sums of public money, including party subsidies, at a company run by his publicly appointed secretary.