Overview

• Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s special investigations unit conducted hours-long searches at offices linked to Upper House member Akira Ishii, including his Toride base and a Diet building room.
• Officials carried out the raids for roughly nine hours and were seen loading boxes of seized materials into vehicles in the evening.
• Japan Innovation Party secretary-general Hiroshi Nakatsukasa said the party views the matter seriously and pledged action if the allegations are substantiated, noting he has not reached Ishii.
• Opposition figures, including Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki, said resignation would be unavoidable if public-secretary pay was fraudulently obtained.
• Yomiuri Shimbun acknowledged it misidentified a different party lawmaker as the target and said it will publish an apology on August 28 after deleting the erroneous online story.