According to a report by Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" on November 28, the political group affiliated with the current Japanese Prime Minister, Hashimoto Asahi, spent 33 million yen to hire a "water army" public relations team during the 2024 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election, and the total publicity expenses eventually amounted to about 83.84 million yen (about 3.81 million yuan). The report has sparked heated discussions among Japanese netizens on social media, with some even joking, "No wonder every time I criticized Hashimoto, there were a bunch of accounts attacking me." So far, Hashimoto's side has not made any public response to this report.

By comparison, another candidate, Koizumi Jinno, also hired a PR company, which cost 20.23 million yen (about 920,000 yuan); while the eventual winner, Ishikawa Shigeru, had only 420,000 yen (about 19,000 yuan) in expenses related to the 2024 presidential election, according to the financial records.

Last election, Hashimoto's team spent 80 million yen. Mainichi Shimbun

According to the report, Hashimoto's political group received approximately 200 million yen in political support funds that year, of which about 83.84 million yen was used for campaign expenses before and during the election, including video production fees paid to advertising companies, social media (SNS) promotion costs, and website development fees paid to the campaign strategy team.

Specifically, the campaign team spent nearly 33 million yen on online advertisements alone, and specially hired a PR team that had previously assisted Ishibashi Shinji in the Tokyo Metropolitan Governor's election, enabling him to win the second-highest vote as an underdog. According to the "Mainichi Shimbun," this team is very skilled at using social media platforms for political propaganda and public opinion guidance, which is the main reason why Hashimoto hired them.

Additionally, there were more than 45 million yen in printing expenses. The report mentioned that although the LDP had already issued a ban on mailing leaflets, Hashimoto sent out over 300,000 flyers right before the deadline, despite protests from other camps and warnings from the election management committee.

Moreover, compared to his first run for the presidency in 2021, Hashimoto's team had never spent more than 10 million yen on a single campaign expense.

In contrast, the final winner of the 2024 presidential election, Ishikawa Shigeru, according to the financial reports of his political fund management group "Ishikawa Shigeru Seikei Kenwa-kai" and his political branch, clearly listed only 390,000 yen for the "presidential election brochure production fee" and 30,000 yen for the "presidential election banner production fee" as expenses related to the 2024 presidential election. Compared to Hashimoto's "showy" approach, these amounts are indeed minimal.

As for another hot candidate, Koizumi Jinno, according to the financial reports of his political fund management group "Izumi Shin-kai" and his political branch, he paid approximately 20.23 million yen to a Tokyo PR company under the name of "presidential election publicity support activity fees." On the surface, this amount is much less than Hashimoto's, but according to other financial records cited by the "Mainichi Shimbun," after the election, Koizumi's team also paid 29.19 million yen to another Tokyo company engaged in "brand strategy" as "activity fees."

This report has once again drawn attention from Japanese netizens to the party leader debate held on November 26. At that time, the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, Noda Yoshihiko, called for a complete ban on corporate and group political donations, and Hashimoto immediately responded, "Rather than that, let's talk about reducing the number of members of parliament first." This statement immediately caused controversy. Many Japanese netizens questioned, "Can such a serious issue as 'political donations' be brushed aside with a simple 'rather than that'?"

According to multiple Japanese media outlets on November 28, the "Nara Prefecture Second Election District Branch of the LDP" received 10 million yen in political donations from a company in Tokyo in August 2024. However, according to the "Political Funds Control Law," the donation limit for the company was 7.5 million yen. Hashimoto's office explained that it was due to a misjudgment of the company's scale, and the excess part has been returned, with the financial report being corrected.

Some Japanese media have commented that this response from Hashimoto's team easily reminds people of the influence of Taro Aso within the LDP and his style of handling "political donation" issues. Unfortunately, the LDP presidential election, although considered the de facto selection of the Japanese prime minister, is not subject to the "Public Offices Election Act," so there is neither a legal limit on expenses nor a legal obligation to publicly disclose financial records.

Excessive political donations and excessively high presidential election costs have triggered concerns among some Japanese citizens about the lack of effective supervision of high campaign expenditures and external concerns about the "unlimited money war" in the LDP's internal elections. Therefore, supporters and critics of Hashimoto have fiercely debated on social media.

A Japanese far-right economic commentator, Watanabe Tetsuya, raged on X platform, accusing the "Mainichi Shimbun" of publishing false news, claiming that the 45 million yen advertisement leaflet payment brief had already been prepared before the election, and the "Mainichi Shimbun" was a garbage newspaper.

Some Japanese netizens left comments criticizing, "Even if I criticize Ishikawa, I won't receive any negative comments, but when I criticize Hashimoto, I get a lot of negative comments. With 33 million yen in advertisement fees, I think I found the answer."

Some Japanese netizens directly posted screenshots of search records of Hashimoto's promotional tweets, showing that the same promotional content was widely shared and repeatedly displayed, directly pointing to the "water army" activities of Hashimoto's campaign team.

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Original: toutiao.com/article/7578713730221998598/

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