Suspicions are growing over the use of political funds and the accuracy of mandatory reports on such funds. Specifically, the suspicions have been aroused by media reports that five Cabinet ministers and two Liberal Democratic Party executives had declared a combined 689 million yen as "office expenses" over five years through 2005 even though their political fund management organizations are housed inside the rent-free lawmakers office buildings near the Diet Building. It is also suspected that opposition lawmakers have engaged in this questionable practice.
Unless the politicians involved provide convincing explanations, the public's distrust of politics will deepen, particularly given that this budding scandal comes on the heels of the one involving Mr. Genichiro Sata, a former administrative reform minister who was forced to resign over accounting irregularities by one of his political support organizations. The organization in question had officially reported that it spent about 78 million yen from 1990 to 2000 in maintenance expenditures for a rented office in Tokyo that in fact did not exist.
The five Cabinet ministers whose names cropped up in the media reports are education minister Bunmei Ibuki, agriculture minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, Finance Minister Koji Omi, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga and administrative minister Yoshimi Watanabe. The two LDP executives are Mr. Shoichi Nakagawa, chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council, and Mr. Yuya Niwa, chairman of the LDP Executive Council. Among the seven, Mr. Nakagawa declared the largest amount of about 286 million yen as "office expenses," followed by Mr. Ibuki (about 236 million yen), Mr. Matsuoka (about 143 million yen), Mr. Omi (about 16 million yen), Mr. Suga (about 7 million yen), Mr. Watanabe (about 4 million yen for 2005 only) and Mr. Niwa (about 100,000 yen).