The Tokyo District Court convicted two campaign staffers for violating the Public Offices Election Act by paying university students for election work [1].

This ruling highlights the legal boundaries of campaign spending in Japan, specifically the prohibition against paying individuals to act as election campaigners. The case underscores the risk that campaign staff face when executing instructions that bypass election laws.

Kyoka Sugawara, 25, was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for three years [1]. Yoshiko Sato, 63, received a sentence of eight months, also suspended for three years [1]. Both women worked for the campaign of Nobuko Irie, a former member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly [1].

The court found that the pair paid a total of 460,000 yen [1] to 11 university student volunteers [1] as compensation for their work. Under Japanese law, paying such rewards to election campaigners is considered bribery and is strictly forbidden.

In the ruling, the presiding judge said that the defendants responded to requests from Irie and involved many young people in a crime [1]. The judge said that the staffers should have stopped Irie because they had concerns about the illegality of the payments from the beginning [1].

Nobuko Irie, whose age is reported as 63 [2] or 64 [1], faces her own legal proceedings. A narrator for TBS NEWS DIG said that Irie is charged with violating the Public Offices Election Act and is expected to stand trial [1].

“The defendants responded to requests from Irie and involved many young people in a crime.”

This conviction reinforces the strict interpretation of Japan's Public Offices Election Act, which aims to prevent the monetization of political support. By penalizing the staff members who facilitated the payments, the court is signaling that 'following orders' from a candidate is not a valid legal defense when those orders violate statutory prohibitions against bribery.