不記載の派閥指示、０４年に　萩生田氏「深くおわび」―衆院政倫審

　自民党派閥の裏金事件を巡り、旧安倍派の萩生田光一元政調会長は１８日、衆院政治倫理審査会で弁明に臨んだ。２００４年に当時の派閥事務局長から、政治資金パーティー券の販売ノルマ超過分のキックバック（還流）を政治資金収支報告書に記載しないよう、事務所スタッフが指示を受けたと説明。「国民に多大な疑念を抱かせ、政治不信を招いたことについて、改めて深くおわびする」と陳謝した。
　萩生田氏は０３年の衆院選で初当選。その翌年には、事務所として還流の仕組みを把握していたことになる。ただ、自身については「本件が問題になって以降、事務所担当者から聴取して初めて認識した」と述べた。
　旧安倍派の柴山昌彦元文部科学相も政倫審に出席し、１４年ごろに不記載を指示されたと発言した。柴山氏は０４年に衆院議員に就任しているが、萩生田氏の証言と違いがみられた。
　旧安倍派の還流に関しては、派閥会長だった安倍晋三元首相の指示で２２年４月にいったん廃止を決定しながら、その死去後に継続された経緯が明らかになっていない。（2024/12/18-20:03）

Koichi Hagiuda, former policy leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Wednesday that his office was instructed in 2004 by his party faction to keep unreported funds at the heart of a high-profile slush funds scandal.
   Hagiuda told a parliamentary ethics panel hearing that the then top secretary of the now-defunct faction, led in recent years by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, told Hagiuda's office not to record in his political funds reports revenues from fundraising party ticket sales that exceeded the sales quota assigned to him.
   This means that Hagiuda's office was aware of the faction's kickback system in 2004, the year after he was first elected to the Diet, the country's parliament. But he added that he learned of the system when he received explanations from his staff after the scandal broke.
   "I again sincerely apologize for causing citizens to have great doubts and evoking distrust in politics," Hagiuda told the panel in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet.
   His testimony differed from that of another former Abe faction member Masahiko Shibayama, former education minister. Shibayama, first elected to the Lower House in 2004, told the panel that the faction had given a similar instruction to his side around 2014.