An election team for Shinji Ishimaru, who unsuccessfully ran in last year＊s Tokyo gubernatorial election, has been accused of paying a company to livestream a campaign event, in violation of the election law.

A university professor and a civic group separately filed a criminal complaint with the Metropolitan Police Department, which were both accepted on Tuesday.

The complaint alleges that Ishimaru＊s election team paid the company a total of ?977,350 to livestream a gathering on YouTube that was held on July 5 last year 〞 two days before the election 〞 with the money partly used to cover labor costs.

The Public Offices Election Act prohibits candidates and their teams from giving money to support election campaigns, as it is considered bribery.

Ishimaru was not among those accused of wrongdoing in either of the complaints. The civic group filed a similar complaint with Tokyo prosecutors in February.

Ishimaru held a news conference later in February, saying that the payments were made as a ※cancellation fee§ after his campaign staff raised concerns that the payment might be illegal. He claimed the fees did not cover labor and that the livestreaming company＊s staff had participated as volunteers.

Although Ishimaru was defeated in the election, he drew considerable attention by finishing second to incumbent Yuriko Koike, securing nearly 1.7 million votes among a field of 54 other candidates, including veteran opposition lawmaker Renho.

Following his loss, the former mayor of Akitakata in Hiroshima Prefecture founded a regional party called Saisei no Michi (The Path to Rebirth) with the goal of running candidates in the Tokyo assembly election in July.

While Ishimaru＊s team faces allegations of violating the election law, much of the attention during the campaign focused on how candidate posters were misused to promote unrelated issues.

※I remember (last year＊s gubernatorial) election as one where various issues and problems came to the surface,§ said Koike during a regular news conference on Friday. ※After the election, we asked the prime minister and the national political parties to take action, including the revision of the law, and as a result, the Public Offices Election Law was revised in the current Diet session.

※As for the future, we expect that appropriate election campaigns will be conducted in accordance with the revised law,§ she added.