Amid intense scrutiny over expensive business trips and using an official car for personal travel, Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe has once again found himself embroiled in scandal, this time involving a possible violation of political funding laws.
In an article published Wednesday by the weekly Shukan Bunshun magazine titled "Masuzoe Tochiji Ketsuzei Takari no Rireki" ("Gov. Masuzoe's History of Freeloading on Taxpayer Money"), the magazine wrote that, on Jan. 3, 2013, and Jan. 2, 2014, Masuzoe paid a total of ¥371,100 at a resort hotel in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, expensing them as "conference fees" paid through his political fund group Global Network Kenkyukai. But according to an unnamed hotel staffer interviewed by the publication, the governor was vacationing with his family, adding that he played with his child in a swimming pool and stayed in luxury rooms.
Similarly, the high-profile academic-turned-politician, known as an avid art collector, bought art-related goods for over ¥9 million, including nearly ¥2 million from a dealer based in Tokyo. But when describing the outlays in an expense report from between 2012 and 2014, he listed the purchased items as "supplies" and "expendables."