Nippon Ishin's Fujita Defends Payments to Secretary's Firm

Tokyo, Nov. 4 (Jiji Press)--Fumitake Fujita, co-leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) in the ruling coalition, said Tuesday that his reported payments from public funds to a firm headed by his secretary were "lawful."

At a press conference in Tokyo, Fujita stressed that he has no intention of resigning from his party post.

Nippon Ishin chief Hirofumi Yoshimura, also governor of Osaka Prefecture, denied on the same day that he would dismiss Fujita.

The payments in question were recently reported by the Japanese Communist Party's official newspaper. According to the newspaper, Fujita paid a total of about 21 million yen to his first state-paid secretary's firm between 2017 and 2024, mainly for leaflet printing services. The amount included some 19.65 million yen from public funds.

The newspaper argued that the payments were problematic because the secretary received 7.2 million yen in annual compensation from the firm.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]