維新いしん石井いしい章あきら参院さんいん議員ぎいん 議員ぎいん辞職じしょくの意向いこう明あきらかに

Ishii Akira, a member of the House of Councillors from the Japan Innovation Party, has announced his intention to resign as a lawmaker following an investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Offices Special Investigation Department into allegations that he fraudulently obtained government-paid official secretary salaries.

Ishii Akira, a member of the House of Councillors from Nippon Ishin no Kai, is under investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Offices special investigation unit on suspicion of fraud for allegedly registering a person with no actual work record as a government-paid secretary and fraudulently obtaining the secretarys salary paid by the government.

In response to this, Mr. Ishii released a statement.

In this statement, he apologizes by saying, I sincerely and deeply apologize to the people of the nation for causing a situation that has caused trouble.

On top of that, he stated, Since I am currently under investigation, I have decided that I should resign from my position as a member of the assembly and fully cooperate with the investigation, thereby expressing his intention to resign.

He also stated, Earlier, I informed the party that I would leave the decision regarding my disciplinary action within the party to their discretion.

Mr. Ishii is 68 years old and has been elected twice through the proportional representation system of the House of Councillors.

After serving as a member of the Toride City Council in Ibaraki Prefecture, he ran as a candidate for the then-Democratic Party in the 2009 House of Representatives election for the North Kanto proportional representation block and was elected for the first time.

And then, in the 2016 House of Councillors election, he ran as a proportional representation candidate from the then Osaka Ishin no Kai and was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time. Afterwards, he served as the Chairperson of the Joint Meeting of Both Houses of the Japan Innovation Party, among other positions.