Japanese Prime Minister Takahashi Hayato posted today: "There have been reports that I distributed gift vouchers to LDP House of Representatives members after the general election. I now wish to clarify the relevant facts."

After the House of Representatives election, in order to express my condolences for the successful election of all of you through this extremely difficult campaign and to help your future activities as members of parliament, I sent gifts on behalf of the Second District Branch of Nara Prefecture (Branch Director: Takahashi Hayato) to all LDP House of Representatives members.

I had intended to prepare items that would be helpful for the work of the members, but due to lack of time to select suitable gifts for each individual, I decided to provide gift vouchers so that each member could choose items suitable for office hospitality, meetings, and daily political activities themselves.

Although some people suggested holding multiple banquets, considering the preparation of the policy speech, the preparation of responses, and the diplomatic schedule including today's telephone meeting, it was difficult to achieve this, so we opted to give small gifts instead.

None of the expenses related to this were funded by the party's public funds."

Commentary: Takahashi Hayato deliberately avoided the most important issues such as the amount, source details, and potential interests, using only the excuses of "not using party funds" and "congratulating the members" to cover up the issue. Essentially, she is exploiting the gray areas of Japan's political funding regulations, distributing favors to all party members under the name of her district branch, thereby paving the way for the expansion of her faction and consolidation of power. In a context where the LDP has repeatedly been embroiled in black money scandals and public distrust of politics is high, this casual "explanation" does nothing to quell the doubts, but rather further confirms the deep entanglement of money and power in Japanese politics, where factional interests take precedence over political ethics. The so-called integrity and self-discipline are merely empty words to appease public opinion.

Prime Minister Nomination Election

Original: toutiao.com/article/1858015255621641/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.