Abe apologizes for dinner spending scandal

“Even though [the irregularities] occurred without my knowledge, I am keenly aware of my moral responsibility,” Abe said at a press conference at the Diet building on Thursday. “I deeply regret it and offer my sincerest apologies to the people.”

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s special investigation squad filed the summary indictment against the secretary, Hiroyuki Haikawa, on the same day over a suspected violation of the Political Funds Control Law. Abe, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was not indicted due to insufficient evidence.

In a Diet session during his time as prime minister, Abe repeatedly denied the fact that his political support group covered some of the expenses of the dinner events. However, at the press conference on Thursday, he admitted that the group had paid a portion of the expenses and that it later revised its political fund reports.

Regarding his past remarks in the Diet, Abe also apologized for the discrepancy in some of his answers given at the time.

“This has undermined the public’s trust in politics. I would like to express my deepest apologies to the people and to all Diet members of the ruling and opposition parties,” Abe said.

When asked about whether he intends to resign from politics, Abe denied the possibility, saying: “I am well aware that I have an extremely heavy political responsibility. I want to fulfill my duties by returning to my original political goals and doing my best.”

On Friday, Abe explained the matter and fielded questions from ruling and opposition party members at sessions of the committees on rules and administration of both Diet chambers. He corrected past remarks made in the Diet and offered his apologies.

According to the House of Representatives’ Research Bureau, Abe made remarks, such as “My office isn’t involved in this matter,” “There are no receipts” and “[My support group] did not make up for the shortfall [when costs exceeded what dinner guests had paid],” 118 times from November 2019 to March 2020 when answering questions posed by lawmakers in the Diet.

■ Payments made ‘out of pocket’

At the press conference Thursday, Abe explained that the shortfall for the expenses of the dinner events was covered by his own money allotted for his personal expenses that he had entrusted to his office.

“As a number of invoices for expenses, including food and transportation, come to my office every day, I have the office handle the payments,” Abe said. “The payments were made from money withdrawn from my personal account that I had entrusted to the office.”