Overview

• An interagency team led by the Metropolitan Police arrested Delpara CEO Masanori Yamamoto (Lee Changbeom), 50, and five executives on suspicion of promising cash to employees who voted for LDP proportional candidate Yasuhisa Abe, 66, an industry-backed figure who lost.
• Investigators say managers were instructed in early July via online meetings to steer staff to Abe and to have them submit photos from voting sites, including images of marked ballots or voting certificates, to report back to headquarters.
• The promised reward was reportedly ¥3,000–¥4,000 per vote, with about 60 employees directly solicited and roughly 250 believed to have cast ballots, and total cases under scrutiny nearing 280, which would be unusually large for a national race.
• Police are examining directions to record any rewards as “overtime pay,” and while investigators have not confirmed payments in all cases, searches and interviews are continuing.
• Separately, the LDP–Komeito payout plan remains stalled as LDP executives signal possible revisions requiring opposition cooperation; the Constitutional Democratic Party labeled its election result a “de facto defeat,” yet senior officials rejected calls to resign.