{"id":6136,"date":"2025-08-04T09:22:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T09:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/?p=6136"},"modified":"2025-08-04T09:22:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T09:22:59","slug":"tokyo-prosecutors-will-indict-those-involved-in-the-ruling-liberal-democratic-partys-black-money-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/?p=6136","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo prosecutors will indict those involved in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party\u2019s \u2019black money\u2019 scandal."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to Japanese media reports on November 3rd, Tokyo prosecutors will indict the secretary of senior Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member Koichi Hagiuda in connection with the ruling party\u2019s &#8220;black gold&#8221; scandal. This prosecutorial decision may affect the efforts by Hagiuda and others to urge Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru to resign.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2023, a &#8220;black gold&#8221; scandal erupted within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Multiple factions set sales targets for their affiliated Diet members, requiring them to sell tickets to political fundraising parties. Any funds exceeding the sales targets were returned to the members as &#8220;rebates.&#8221; This money was not recorded in the faction\u2019s financial reports or the members\u2019 political funds reports, thus becoming unregulated secret funds.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6137\" title=\"f294b74e8107f1f3301e71384e19630a\" src=\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f294b74e8107f1f3301e71384e19630a.jpeg\" alt=\"f294b74e8107f1f3301e71384e19630a\" width=\"1260\" height=\"709\" srcset=\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f294b74e8107f1f3301e71384e19630a.jpeg 1260w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f294b74e8107f1f3301e71384e19630a-300x169.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f294b74e8107f1f3301e71384e19630a-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f294b74e8107f1f3301e71384e19630a-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The total amount involved in the &#8220;black gold&#8221; scandal related to Hagiuda Koichi is \u00a527.28 million, approximately RMB 1.33 million. He received party discipline as a result. Reportedly, the prosecution decided not to indict Hagiuda Koichi himself due to &#8220;insufficient evidence&#8221;, but determined that his secretary engaged in illegal activities such as destroying evidence, and will therefore file a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6139\" title=\"145b396a08ce2ac8b801639f1a8d7fe9\" src=\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/145b396a08ce2ac8b801639f1a8d7fe9.jpeg\" alt=\"145b396a08ce2ac8b801639f1a8d7fe9\" width=\"1260\" height=\"709\" srcset=\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/145b396a08ce2ac8b801639f1a8d7fe9.jpeg 1260w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/145b396a08ce2ac8b801639f1a8d7fe9-300x169.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/145b396a08ce2ac8b801639f1a8d7fe9-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/145b396a08ce2ac8b801639f1a8d7fe9-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This would mark the first time prosecutors have pursued criminal charges related to the \u2018black gold\u2019 scandal, though the name of Hagiuda Koichi\u2019s secretary has yet to be released.<\/p>\n<p>K?ichi Hagiuda, a former member of the Liberal Democratic Party\u2019s (LDP) once-largest faction, the \u2019Abe faction,\u2019 was considered a close confidant of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and had a distant relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru. Following the LDP\u2019s crushing defeat in the House of Councillors election last month, Hagiuda and other former members of the \u2019Abe faction\u2019 publicly demanded Ishiba\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6138\" title=\"49630dfe0a66e60aa2977b60acd92571\" src=\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/49630dfe0a66e60aa2977b60acd92571.jpeg\" alt=\"49630dfe0a66e60aa2977b60acd92571\" width=\"1260\" height=\"709\" srcset=\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/49630dfe0a66e60aa2977b60acd92571.jpeg 1260w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/49630dfe0a66e60aa2977b60acd92571-300x169.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/49630dfe0a66e60aa2977b60acd92571-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/49630dfe0a66e60aa2977b60acd92571-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Analysts believe that the impending prosecution of Hagiuda Koichi\u2019s secretary may affect his efforts to pressure Ishiba Shigeru to resign. Simultaneously, the impact of this event on other key members of the former Abe faction is also a subject of considerable attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Japanese media reports on November 3rd, Tokyo prosecutors will indict the secretary of senior Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member Koichi Hagiuda in connection with the ruling party\u2019s &#8220;black&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,267],"tags":[2886,2716,2889,2887,2888],"views":63,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6140,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136\/revisions\/6140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}