The following is from an article written by Hara Eiji, the head of a policy think tank, that appeared in the Sankei Shimbun on December 30th, 2024.

This article proves that he is a genuine intellectual.

Readers will know who he is.

He is the president, and Takahashi Yoichi is also a director.

It is Japan’s most potent policy think tank.

The label “slush fund.”

The so-called “secret funds” scandal broke about a year ago.

It still shows no sign of dying down.

The political ethics committees of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors have been holding hearings, and the politicians involved have been explaining.

However, judging from the reports in the major newspapers, it doesn’t look like this will be the end of the matter.

Why has it become so complicated?

First of all, the term “secret funds” is wrong.　

According to the Kojien dictionary, “Uragane” refers to “money that is not recorded in official accounts and is illegally accumulated for use at one’s discretion.”

No evidence of misappropriation or unreported wealth was found during the investigations by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and the Liberal Democratic Party.

Most of the money was not recorded by the factions’ instructions.

It does not constitute “secret funds”.

However, some media outlets, such as the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers, continued reporting on the issue, labeling the politicians “secret fund members.”

Before the lower house election, they even published a list of “secret fund members” in their newspapers.

Nothing more than “false reporting” was contrary to the facts.

As a result, many “victims of false accusations” were harshly judged in the election.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has often responded to opposition party questioning in the Diet by saying, “The ‘secret funds’ are a false accusation. They were not recorded.”

However, Prime Minister Ishiba himself, influenced by some media, amplified the pursuit of” secret funds.”　

During the House of Representatives election, the “non-inclusion” of members of the former Abe Faction (Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai) and the former Nikai Faction (Shisui-kai) was treated as non-official recognition or non-inclusion on the proportional representation list.

If it were simply a case of “non-inclusion,” then the former Ishiba Faction (Suigetsukai) and the former Kishida Faction (Kouchikai) would also have been affected.

Still, they were treated as a different kind of “bad non-inclusion.”　

The same applies to the request for attendance at the latest meeting of the Political Ethics Committee.

If the problem for both factions was “omission rather than slush funds,” it would have been strange if the “omissions” of other factions, the Constitutional Democratic Party, etc., had not been treated in the same way.

Ultimately, the administration has decided that “it is not just an omission.”

How should the problem, which has become entangled due to the tacit cooperation between some media and the administration, be resolved?

The administration should honestly reveal the truth.　

One usually thinks that the system of not reporting part of one’s income and then refunding it is nothing more than a way to create “slush funds.”

However, the truth of who created this system for what purpose and whether it has been used as a ‘slush fund’ in the past has not been clarified.

The LDP executive has been covering up the truth and unfairly handing out excessive punishments to the members of parliament who were just caught up in the situation as if to hold them collectively responsible.

Because of this strange response, the public’s distrust of the LDP and politics in general has not subsided.

During the presidential election, Prime Minister Ishiba pledged to “face every one of the concerned members” and have a thorough discussion.

It’s not too late to do so now.

The truth should be made clear, and the situation should be resolved.