Agriculture Minister Muneo Takabe said at a press conference after a Nov. 6 cabinet meeting that he had confirmed companies holding national public works contracts donated to him during the 2014 and 2021 lower house election campaigns, and that he would return the money.
The donations totaled ¥850,000 from four companies, according to Shukan Bunshun, which reported the payments. Asked about the contracts by Bunshun before the press conference, Takabe said he had no recollection of them at the time; he acknowledged them on Nov. 6.
“They were donations for ordinary political activity, but because they came during an election period, I will return them so as not to raise public doubts about politics.”Muneo Takabe, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister
What Bunshun reported
Bunshun reported on Nov. 3 that Takabe, 56, appeared to have received illegal donations during lower house election campaigns in breach of the Public Offices Election Act. The total came to ¥850,000.
According to the political fund report of the Liberal Democratic Party's Hokkaido No. 12 electoral district branch, which Takabe heads, the branch received ¥150,000 on Oct. 20, 2021, from a construction company in Bihoro, in his district. That was the day after the campaign officially began, meaning the donation came during the election period.
The company, which marks 90 years in business this year, describes itself on the website of the Hokkaido Construction Industry Association as handling road, river, agricultural civil engineering and building work, mainly public projects. In May 2021 it won a contract worth more than ¥120 million for levee repairs on the Yubetsu and Nashikotsu rivers, ordered by the Abashiri Development and Construction Department of the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau under the land ministry. In other words, it was working on a national public works project.
Earlier allegations
Bunshun has reported five earlier allegations against Takabe. They include paying ¥860,000 to a freelance photographer during the 2024 lower house election, which would amount to vote-buying, and creating a slush fund of about ¥30 million across the 2014 and 2017 elections.
On Oct. 20, Bunshun reported that Takabe had received a donation from a company holding public works contracts on the day the 2024 campaign officially began, and said it may violate the election law. Takabe returned that donation and apologized but denied any violation, saying it was a donation for ordinary political activity.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi appointed Takabe to the agriculture portfolio as someone who could hit the ground running. The funding questions now sit in a cabinet that has had to answer for one of its ministers' finances within weeks of taking office.