Ex-Japan Lawmaker Hirose Found Guilty of Fraud

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced former lawmaker Megumi Hirose to 30 months in prison, suspended for five years, for defrauding the government of several million yen in salary for a secretary.

Takashi Ishikawa, presiding judge at Tokyo District Court, said that Hirose, 58, went ahead with the fraud although she holds a lawyer qualification and despite her husband telling her it was illegal.

She showed "extremely poor consideration and deserves condemnation," the judge said.

Hirose was a member of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan's parliament, before stepping down in August 2024 over the scandal.

The judge ruled that Hirose submitted a fake document to the Upper House, claiming that she had hired the wife of her first publicly funded secretary as her second secretary in December 2022.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]