Political groups headed by Tokyo governor during lawmaker years had huge expenses

Frequent spending on luxury hotels and dining by local party branches headed by Yoichi Masuzoe -- the current governor of Tokyo who has recently come under fire for the use of public funds and official cars for private use -- when he was a House of Councillors lawmaker have emerged through a review of party branch expenditures by the Mainichi Shimbun.

Amendments to the Political Funds Control Law have required Diet members' political organizations to indicate any expenditures over 10,000 yen in their political funding reports since 2009. The Mainichi Shimbun combed through the political funding reports of the Liberal Democratic Party's 28th branch of Tokyo's House of Councillors proportional-representation constituency, and the New Renaissance Party's 4th branch of the proportional-representation constituency since 2009, both of which had, at different times, been headed by Masuzoe.

The Mainichi found that during the Bon Buddhist summer festival season in 2009 and in 2011, the funding reports showed stays at high-end resorts in the Okinawa Prefecture capital of Naha that cost 140,360 yen in 2009 and 119,822 yen in 2011. The records also show that during the Bon season in 2010, there was a stay at a hotel in the Ichinomata hot springs resort in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, costing 76,077 yen.

The Okinawa hotel recorded in the 2009 funding reports is one of the highest-ranked hotels in Naha. The most expensive room is a suite that costs about 200,000 yen per person a night, without meals. The hotel that was used in the 2010 trip to the hot springs resort in Yamaguchi Prefecture has a "fugu (puffer fish) plan," which costs over 22,000 yen per person a night. A comparison of these hotel prices and the funding reports suggest that the stays included multiple people.

The reports showed a stay at a hotel in the city of Osaka on Aug. 29, 2010, costing a minimum of 73,000 yen per person a night. Meanwhile, a resort hotel stay in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Jan. 3, 2011, is recorded as costing 195,167 yen. Prices at this hotel during the New Year season are approximately 260,000 yen per night for a suite, and some 150,000 yen per night for a junior suite.

The two political organizations also recorded "expenses for the exchange of opinions" consisting of wining and dining at high-end restaurants in Tokyo multiple times. In January 2009, 116,760 yen was paid to a French restaurant in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward owned by a celebrity chef. In October of that year, 68,130 yen was spent at an Italian restaurant, also in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, that had been awarded two Michelin stars.

Between 2009 and 2014, the two political organizations had received a total of 148.8 million yen from government subsidies given to their umbrella political parties, which comprised 91 percent of the groups' total incomes. Observers have criticized Masuzoe for treating public funds as if they were at his private disposal.