Key Facts
• June 27, 2023: Nobuteru Ishihara held a press conference in Tokyo.
• July 2, 2023: TV program “Saturday LIVE News Zigzag” aired Ishihara’s comments.
• Ishihara claimed four former Abe faction leaders resumed fund circulation after Abe’s death.
• The four leaders mentioned: Koichi Hagiuda, Hirokazu Matsuno, Yasutoshi Nishimura, and Hiroshige Seko.
• Issue: Hagiuda and Matsuno did not attend the meetings referenced by Ishihara.
• July 9, 2023: The program issued a correction, clarifying the attendance error.
• Abe faction representative called the claim “regrettable and not based on facts.”
Summary
A Japanese TV program, “Saturday LIVE News Zigzag,” corrected a misstatement by former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara regarding political funds in the former Abe faction. Ishihara alleged that four faction leaders resumed fund circulation after Shinzo Abe’s death, which he described as a betrayal. However, it was later clarified that two of the four leaders, Koichi Hagiuda and Hirokazu Matsuno, were not present at the meetings in question. The program acknowledged the error on July 9, 2023, and issued a correction. A representative of the Abe faction expressed regret over the inaccurate claims, emphasizing the importance of factual reporting.
