41 assembly members return church-related expenses
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Forty-one local assembly members felt compelled to return or correct their expenses for political activities because they involved matters concerning the Unification Church, The Asahi Shimbun learned.
Local governments provide local assembly members with funds, courtesy of taxpayers, for political activities to support their policy planning research.
The assembly members typically use the money to purchase materials or to cover activities designated as training as well as inspection tours.
In December 2022, The Asahi Shimbun surveyed 1,788 local assemblies and received responses from all of them by the following month.
In 18 instances, there was at least one case of a local assembly member returning or correcting his or her expense for political activities.
The 18 local assemblies included nine prefectures, as well as Tokyo, four government-designated cities and four cities.
The Asahi Shimbun also learned that the Hiroshima, Nagano and Tochigi prefectural assemblies had similar cases.
From fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2022, a total of 1.54 million yen ($11,780) was either returned or corrected.
Content retrieved from: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14871850.
