Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, answers questions from reporters after the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution concluded that prosecutors' decision not to indict him over his connection to a money issue involving pre-sakura party dinner functions, at the First Members' Office Building of the House of Representatives on July 30, 2021. (Mainichi/Kan Takeuchi)

       TOKYO -- An "invisible battle" is unfolding between the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation unit and an inquest committee over former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's connection to spending on functions held the night before controversial sakura-viewing parties.

       The prosecutor's office is apparently wary of the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution because it has the power to force prosecutors to reopen an investigation and indict suspects.

       On July 30, the Tokyo No. 1 inquest committee announced that its members had deemed the decision not to charge Abe with violating the Political Funds Control Act "appropriate," but that prosecutors' decision not to indict him on a charge of violating the Public Offices Election Act was "inappropriate."

       In response to the committee's announcement, one senior prosecutor spontaneously remarked to the Mainichi Shimbun, "Is that what they were getting at?" The prosecutor's office, which had placed the main focus of its investigation into whether to charge Abe with violation of the political funds control law over negligence in listing the balance of payments regarding pre-sakura party dinners on a political fund report, was seemingly caught off guard.

       An official posts a decision by the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, which partially ruled that non-prosecution of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was "inappropriate" over his connection to a money issue involving pre-sakura party dinner functions, in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on July 30, 2021. (Mainichi/Kimi Takeuchi)

       Functions held the night before the sakura-viewing parties were hosted by a group of Abe's supporters annually from 2013 to 2019. The events were held at high-end Tokyo hotels and were attended by many of Abe's supporters from his home prefecture of Yamaguchi for a participation fee of 5,000 yen (about $45).

       Investigations into the hotels revealed that income from participation fees for the years 2016 to 2019 were about 11.57 million yen (roughly $104,900), while expenditure totaled about 18.65 million yen (some $169,100). Abe's then state-funded first secretary, who was the head of the supporters' association, admitted during voluntary questioning that the association made up the difference of about 7.08 million yen.

       However, a total of about 30.22 million yen in income and expenditure was not recorded in the association's political fund report, and the Tokyo prosecutors office's special investigation unit determined that the former secretary, who was effectively in charge of accounting, could be held criminally responsible for the omission.

       However, a criminal charge for Abe himself was a difficult issue to deal with. The political funds control law is designed to build cases against those in charge of accounting for political organizations, but politicians themselves are also subject to indictment if there is a conspiracy to omit or make a false entry. The focus of investigations was the conspiracy between Abe and his former secretary.

       The former secretary is said to have stated that he did not report the accounting procedures to Abe, so it was difficult to prove collusion.

       With prosecutors poised to avoid indicting Abe, the last thing the special investigation unit focused on was questioning him. In cases involving politicians, it has become common practice to interview the politicians themselves in order to convince the inquest committee that the decision not to prosecute was right. If the inquest committee judges that prosecutors dropped the case without a thorough investigation, there is a risk that they will vote to force prosecutors to reopen it.

       In December 2020, when Abe was voluntarily questioned, he told the special investigation unit that he had not received any reports from his secretary. It was unusual for a former prime minister to undergo such questioning. As a result, no consistent evidence of collusion was obtained, and the investigation unit decided to hand the former secretary a summary indictment and drop the charges against Abe.

       The investigation was thus carefully conducted, or at least prosecutors thought it was. As the special investigation unit had expected, the inquest committee voted to support the investigation result regarding the non-entry of amounts in political funding reports, saying that it was "difficult to find any evidence of collusion." However, the committee deemed the investigation into the alleged violation of the election law insufficient, and referred the case back to prosecutors.

       To make a case under the election law's prohibition of donations, it is necessary to prove that the participants were aware they were receiving meals and other services in excess of their payment. The investigation unit questioned about 30 of the participants and found that none of them were aware of this, so they quickly gave up on the case.

       However, the inquest committee criticized prosecutors' conclusion, saying that the recognition of donations should be judged on an individual basis. More than 200 voters are believed to have attended the function in 2019 alone. Prosecutors will have to reconsider the scope of people to be questioned in the renewed investigation.

       In an addendum to the decision, the inquest committee criticized Abe, stating, "The attitude of someone who served as prime minister that he had nothing to do with the matter, saying, 'It was done only by my secretary,' is unacceptable in the public's view." The inquest committee, whose members are voters, tends to take a tough line on issues involving politics and money.

       In the case of former Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Isshu Sugawara, prosecutors dropped an indictment against him for violating the election law, but in February this year, the inquest committee voted to support the indictment.

       The decision of the committee pointed out that prosecutors "should give full consideration to the people's earnest wish that Diet members be clean." The Tokyo prosecutors office turned the tables on the case and issued a summary indictment, resulting in a fine of 400,000 yen (roughly $3,650) and a three-year suspension of civil and political rights.

       Yoshitomo Ode, professor emeritus of criminal procedural law at Kyushu University, who is familiar with the inquest system, said, "The inquest committee is a system to check the exercise of authority by prosecutors, which is conducted behind closed doors. The fact that the number of political cases handled (by the committee) is increasing reflects the fact that prosecutors are not sufficiently responding to citizens' concerns. If charges cannot be brought against a person, prosecutors need to explain the reason properly."

       (Japanese original by Kazuya Shimura, Yujiro Futamura, Ai Kunimoto and Tomonori Matsuo, Tokyo City News Department)

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       The Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution consists of 11 members chosen at random from among eligible voters, who review behind closed doors prosecutors' decisions not to indict suspects. If six or more members decide that further investigations are necessary, it means that the committee deems non-prosecution "inappropriate," and if eight or more think that prosecution should be carried out, the case is considered "worth" prosecution. In both instances, prosecutors will reopen the case. Under an amendment to the law in 2009, even if the prosecutors again drop the case in the renewed investigation, if eight or more members decide that indictment is appropriate in the second review, a lawyer acting as a prosecutor designated by the court will forcibly issue an indictment.

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