TOKYO: Japanese public prosecutors have questioned a government-paid secretary to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a voluntary basis over dinner parties held by a group of supporters of Abe at a Tokyo hotel on the eve of annual cherry blossom-viewing parties hosted by Abe, it was learned Monday.

The special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office took the move after a civic group and others filed criminal complaints with the office with their claims that the amount of money the supporter group paid to the hotel for the dinner parties exceeded that of fees it collected from participants in the events. The petitioners argued that this violated the political funds control law.

The special squad questioned the Abe secretary, who heads the supporter group, to investigate whether the Abe side covered the gaps between the amounts paid to the hotel and collected from dinner party guests, sources with access to the probe said.

The supporter group is based in the city of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan. The dinner parties were held every spring between 2013, after Abe launched his second tenure as prime minister in late 2012, and 2019. Shimonoseki is part of Abe’s constituency for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament. Abe left the post of prime minister in September this year due to ill health.

The fee was set at 5,000 yen per person for the dinner parties, which were attended by supporters of Abe and others. In Diet debates, opposition parties have claimed that the fee was too low and that the Abe side may have shoulder the gaps.

Abe has rebutted the claims, saying that the fee was set by the hotel and that his office had only brokered the contracts between the hotel and dinner party guests. Abe also said the case did not constitute a violation of the political funds law, arguing, among other things, that his office received no statement related to the fees from the hotel.

The prime minister-hosted cherry blossom-viewing party is intended to praise people who have made remarkable achievements in their respective areas of expertise. But Abe came under fire for using taxpayer money for his private purposes, after numerous people related to his supporter group were invited to the parties.

Amid the criticism, this year’s cherry blossom party was canceled. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who succeeded Abe, has announced his intention to skip the cherry blossom party next year and later, citing various criticisms about the event and a surge in the number of participants.

JIJI Press