{"id":178555,"date":"2026-07-07T10:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=178555&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:48:28","slug":"assembly-cash-allegations-grow","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/assembly-cash-allegations-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Assembly Cash Allegations Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New allegations have emerged in the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly after former Speaker Motoaki Yoshimatsu claimed senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party\u2019s prefectural caucus demanded a total of \u00a527.5 million from lawmakers seeking leadership posts. Yoshimatsu said he paid about \u00a520 million while serving as speaker, and former Vice Speaker Hideyuki Eto acknowledged making cash payments. Current Vice Speaker Masayuki Nakao denied receiving money or participating in the alleged scheme, despite the emergence of audio recordings reportedly linked to the case. The allegations follow recent criticism over costly overseas inspection trips by assembly members, adding to scrutiny of the assembly\u2019s internal practices. Governor Seitaro Hattori said the claims have damaged public trust in the prefectural assembly. <strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fnn.jp\/articles\/-\/1070842\" target=\"_blank\">FNN News<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/newsdig.tbs.co.jp\/articles\/-\/2784144\" target=\"_blank\">TBS News Dig<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_assembly-cash-allegations_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1348%2C754&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1348\" height=\"754\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-178556\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_assembly-cash-allegations_2026_cl.jpg?w=1348&amp;ssl=1 1348w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_assembly-cash-allegations_2026_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_assembly-cash-allegations_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C573&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_assembly-cash-allegations_2026_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C430&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto: TBS News Dig<\/p>\n<p>Get Fukuoka and Kyushu\u2019s top stories delivered to your inbox. The Now is Fukuoka Now\u2019s free biweekly newsletter featuring local news, events, culture, business, and community updates in English. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\">Subscribe to The Now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\">this <strong>form<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New allegations have emerged in the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly after former Speaker Motoaki Yoshimatsu claimed senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party\u2019s prefectural&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30292,"featured_media":178556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-178555","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-prefecture","news-category-politics","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/178555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}