Japan’s ruling LDP punishes 39 members over political funds scandal, urges 2 to quit party

PM Fumio Kishida, who leads the LDP, hopes the steps will allow the party to move on from the scandal before his visit to the US next week
But opposition lawmakers say the party’s probe failed to fully bring to light the facts surrounding the slush funds and are set to demand further scrutiny

Japan

Kyodo

Published: 7:42pm, 4 Apr 2024

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Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday punished 39 members over a political funds scandal, including urging two heavyweights to leave the party, aiming to put a line under a controversy that has dogged it since late last year.

The decision by the LDP’s disciplinary committee comes after some of its factions, including one previously led by the late prime minister Shinzo Abe, were found to have neglected to fully report revenue from fundraising parties for years, with hundreds of millions of yen passed back to members who had sold tickets to the events.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who leads the LDP, hopes the steps will allow the party to move on from the scandal before his visit to the United States next week for talks with President Joe Biden, with official campaigning for three by-elections in parliament kicking off in the following week.

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But opposition lawmakers say the party’s probe has failed to fully bring to light the facts surrounding the slush funds and are set to demand further scrutiny, while the punishment may also draw a backlash from LDP members who feel it is unfair, political pundits said.

Former education minister Ryu Shionoya, the de facto leader of the Abe faction, and Hiroshige Seko, former LDP secretary general in the House of Councillors who is also a high-ranking member of the Abe faction, were advised to leave the party, the second-severest penalty among the party’s eight levels of punitive steps following expulsion.

In response to the decision by the ethics panel, Seko told reporters he offered to leave the party.

Toshihiro Nikai, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight, bows at the end of a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Tokyo. Photo: Kyodo

Separately, Shionoya criticised a decision not to punish Kishida, saying it would only be “fair” to give the prime minister the same treatment.

Among other senior Abe faction members, former trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and former LDP policy chief Hakubun Shimomura were punished by having their party memberships suspended for one year.

The four lawmakers have been censured for failing to end the slush fund practice. Although Abe decided to stop it in April 2022, it was reinstated after a gathering involving the four in August of that year, a month after Abe was assassinated during an election campaign.

At a news conference after the committee meeting, LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi said that the party took more severe steps against the Abe faction executives in light of their roles, calling their political responsibility “extremely heavy”.

Toshimitsu Motegi (middle), secretary general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, at the party’s headquarters in Tokyo. Photo: Kyodo

Tsuyoshi Takagi, who served as secretary general of the Abe faction and LDP Diet affairs chief, was penalised with a half-year party membership suspension.

Hirokazu Matsuno and Koichi Hagiuda, both of whom were also key Abe faction members, and Ryota Takeda, a senior member of another intraparty group headed by Toshihiro Nikai, were suspended from party positions for a year.

The list of LDP members subject to the penalties excluded Nikai, who has decided not to seek reelection as a lawmaker, and Kishida.

Kishida has said he will not be subject to penalties because his faction, unlike the Abe and Nikai groups, did not pass back money to members. The Kishida, Abe, and Nikai groups have decided to disband in the wake of the scandal.

The steps are the LDP’s most extensive disciplinary action since it punished more than 50 members in 2005 after they opposed a bill to privatise the state-run postal service under then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

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In an internal probe, 85 LDP members, including three who are not lawmakers but plan to run in the next election, were found to have failed to declare around 580 million yen (US$3.83 million) as revenue in their political funds reports for five years through 2022.

Earlier this week, Motegi requested a disciplinary committee meeting to decide on the punishment of the 39 incumbent and former lawmakers, most of whom failed to declare at least 5 million yen in their political funds reports.

The severity of punishment differed among nonexecutives of the factions depending on the amount of funds passed back to them, with those who received 20 million yen or more having their party positions suspended for a year.

LDP members who received 10 million yen or more but less than 20 million yen faced a six-month suspension from party positions, while those receiving amounts worth 5 million yen or more but below 10 million yen were given formal warnings.

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