Tokyo prosecutors have searched the offices of an Upper House lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on suspicion of fraud.
Hirose Megumi is suspected of defrauding the state of millions of yen, or more than 10,000 dollars, in salary for a woman who had been registered as Hirose’s state-paid secretary in 2022 and 2023.
Based on information from sources, the prosecutors suspect that the woman, the wife of Hirose’s chief secretary, was a nominal secretary and did not actually work for the lawmaker.
On Tuesday morning, investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office raided Hirose’s office and home in Tokyo and another office in Morioka City, northern Japan.
The prosecutors have already questioned staff at Hirose’s offices on a voluntary basis and plan to question the lawmaker while examining documents they confiscated in the raid.
Hirose told reporters after the search began that she was not sure what was happening and said she will speak to the media after she fully gets a grasp of the situation.
In response to a report by a weekly magazine in March over the alleged money scandal, Hirose noted on her official website that the secretary mainly worked from her home on weekdays and at the office in Morioka on weekends.
The lawmaker said that the woman did work as her secretary although it was not in the public eye.