'50,000 Yen Per Person' Audience Mobilized at Japanese Prime Minister Candidate's Campaign Rally

▲Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is facing allegations that an interest group paid money to mobilize the audience during a campaign rally supporting election candidates.

According to the Asahi Shimbun on the 17th, on the 26th of last month, five days before the House of Representatives election, Prime Minister Kishida held a campaign rally in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, supporting LDP candidate Ayano Kunimitsu. It is reported that the "Ibaraki Prefecture Transportation Policy Research Association" paid 5,000 yen (about 51,000 won) per person to members who came to listen to the speech.

The report states that the research association sent a document titled "Regarding Participation Cooperation for LDP President Fumio Kishida's Speech" by fax to three branches four days before Kishida's speech, informing them that "a daily allowance of 5,000 yen will be paid per participant," and actually paid the daily allowance to members who came to the rally.

The executive director of the research association admitted to giving money to 21 people who came to the site and said, since it took up their time, "I thought we had to give them something."

According to Kyodo News, the executive director also explained that paying the daily allowance had become "customary."

The day after Prime Minister Kishida's visit, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to support the campaign rally, and 5,000 yen was also paid to four people who came to listen to the speech at that time.

Kunimitsu's office responded that they "did not know" about the payment of the daily allowance.

Depending on who was involved, there is a possibility of violating election laws.

Japan's Public Offices Election Law prohibits paying compensation for election campaigning, except for certain registered vehicle campaign workers and others.

Tomoki Iwai, a lecturer at Nihon University Graduate School who is knowledgeable about political funding issues, stated that if the candidate or election camp requested the research association to pay the daily allowance, there could be a problem of violating election laws. However, if it was done independently without relation to the election camp, there would be no illegality issue.

The research association is a voluntary organization with the same address and executives as the "Ibaraki Prefecture Truck Association," an interest group with about 1,600 transportation business operators in Ibaraki Prefecture as members.

Regardless of the election camp's involvement, this incident is expected to be a negative factor for the LDP's image, which has repeatedly faced money-related issues.

Katsuyuki Kawai, former Minister of Justice and a close aide to former Prime Minister Abe, was confirmed guilty this summer on charges of buying votes to get his wife elected in the House of Councillors election.

In the Ibaraki 6th district where Kunimitsu ran in last month's general election, a fierce one-on-one battle between ruling and opposition parties took place.

Kunimitsu, receiving full support from key ruling party figures, won narrowly with 125,703 votes (52.5%) against the opposition candidate's 113,570 votes (47.5%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.