JCP exposes Tokyo Governor Ishihara's foreign trips of extravagance

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JCP exposes Tokyo Governor Ishihara's foreign trips of extravagance

The Japanese Communist Party has revealed that Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro has repeatedly made luxurious trips abroad, using about 20 million yen for each trip.

At a news conference on November 15, the JCP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly said it has found that more than 240 million yen has been expended on 15 out of the 19 trips that Ishihara made since his first election as Tokyo governor in 1999. (Materials for other four trips are unavailable.)

Most of these trips were planned to satisfy Ishihara's personal interests and had nothing to do with meeting the metropolitan government's need to develop or improve welfare and educational programs.

One typical example is the governor's trip with two of his special secretaries to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador from June 11 to 21 in 2001. It cost 14.44 million yen.

Staying at the most luxurious hotel

After attending a luncheon given by the Ecuador government, Ishihara and his secretaries toured the Galapagos Islands from June 14 to 18 aboard a small cruiser and the cruise ship "Santa Cruz."

Ishihara spent 524,000 yen for the tour on board the Santa Cruz. His entourage spent 872,000 yen for their hotel rooms. Ishihara's accommodation fees alone totaled 820,000 yen, more than twice the maximum amount the governor is allowed to expend for a trip.

In an Asahi Shimbun interview reported on February 4 2005, Ishihara said, "I was touring the Galapagos to avoid having to make campaign speeches for like-minded candidates in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election in 2001." Clearly, there was no need at all for the governor to spend 14 million yen to visit the Galapagos.

In a trip to the United States from September 8 to 14, 2001, Ishihara and his entourage of 7 people spent 21.61 million yen. Although they had to cancel some of the planned meetings and speaking engagements and cut short the visit due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the hotel bill the governor's party paid was three times the maximum amount allowed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

From June 23 to July 2, 2004, Ishihara visited the Grand Canyon, Redwood National Park, and Los Angeles ostensibly for the purpose of studying conservation efforts. On this trip he was accompanied by his wife and an entourage of 9 people. This trip cost 21.36 million yen.

While staying at the Grand Canyon for two days and Redwood National Park for another two days, they took part in luncheons and receptions, and visited training schools for rangers. The main purpose of this trip was to study the park ranger system in the U.S., but it was unnecessary because such a system is already in place in Tokyo.

More than 30 million yen disbursed

From May 28 to June 3 this year, Ishihara visited London and the Isle of Man, which is well-known for its motorcycle races. The stated purpose of the tour was to study the preparation for the London summer Olympic Games as well as Manx tourism, and 35.74 million yen was expended..

However, in London he just held a 47-minute meeting with the London 2012 Organizing Committee president and had a 30-minute inspection of related facilities from a helicopter on May 31. He spent 880,000 yen just for the helicopter ride.

His purpose in visiting the Isle of Man was to see if a motorcycle race can be held in Tokyo's Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands in the Pacific. Given the fact that Tokyo had not ascertained the feasibility of the islands as the venue of such a race, was it necessary for the Tokyo governor to go all the way to the Isle of Man?

Compared to other governors, Ishihara has expended much more tax money on trips abroad.

The JCP has obtained the details of 15 out of Governor Ishihara's 19 official foreign trips. They show that the total amount of tax money used for these trips is 244 million yen, or 16 million yen per trip. Four out of these 15 trips were partially paid for by the hosts who invited Ishihara. Without including these four trips, each of Ishihara's foreign trips is estimated to have used about 20 million yen from metropolitan government coffers. The most expensive trip Ishihara has made as governor was the London-Manx tour that expended 35.74 million yen.

This is extraordinary when it is compared to overseas trips by governors of Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama prefectures, who spend 2-8 million yen on each trip.

Each prefectural government has an ordinance that sets the maximum amount the governor and local government employees can expend on hotel accommodations on business trips. For example, the expenses for the Saitama governor on overseas trips were within the maximum amount set by the ordinance.

Tax money was used for Ishihara's wife

In contrast, Ishihara has stayed in hotels that are several times more expensive than the stipulated range set by Tokyo ordinance. In his Washington tour in September 2001, he used a hotel that charged about 130,000 yen a night for five nights in disregard of the ceiling of 40,200 yen per night. What's more, the first night at that hotel cost 260,000 yen, which was 6.6 times the ceiling set by the ordinance. Ishihara's wife accompanied him on this trip and stayed in the same hotel for the same amount.

Ishihara's wife has accompanied him on four trips at the expense of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. When the Saitama governor had a friendship visit to Mexico, he and his wife paid a courtesy call on the governor of the State of Mexico. She paid all her expenses.

Against the September 2001 Washington tour, some Tokyo citizens filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, claiming that such an excessively expensive trip accompanied by the governor's wife was illegal. The court in June this year ordered the governor to reimpurse 540,000 yen to the Tokyo metropolitan government. But, Ishihara at a press conference brazenly said, "The ceiling set by the ordinance for hotel accommodations is too low."

He has always traveled first class. For his trip to North and South America, each round-trip airfare was between 1-1.4 million yen, and between 1.5 and 1.7 million yen for each trip to Europe. He always rented luxury cars when he went on official trips. For example, during the aforementioned trip to Washington, 1.27 million yen was used for a limousine.

About two million yen per trip was used for an interpreter traveling with the governor under a contract with a specific firm. In addition, the governor had an interpreter supplement his remarks. A statement on the special assignment of an interpreter for a trip to Davos in January 2004, said, "In cases that the governor unconsciously omits or forgoes part of his speech, the interpreter will improve his speech based on the current situation of the Tokyo Metropolitan government or his earlier remarks if needed."
- Akahata, November 16, 2006