Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday will decide on the punishments of 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.
Photo taken on Jan. 19, 2024, shows the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. (Kyodo)
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, also a high-ranking member of the Abe faction, will likely be asked to leave the party, the second-severest penalty among the party’s eight levels of punitive steps following expulsion, party sources said.
Among other senior Abe faction members, former trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and former LDP policy chief Hakubun Shimomura are expected to be punished with suspension of their party memberships for one year, the sources said.
The four lawmakers have been censured for having failed 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.
Hirokazu Matsuno and Koichi Hagiuda, both of whom were also key Abe faction members, may be suspended from party positions for a year, the sources said.
The list of LDP members subject to the penalties excluded Toshihiro Nikai, leader of another faction involved who has decided not to seek reelection as a lawmaker, and Kishida.
Kishida has said he will not be subject to penalties given 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 following the scandal.
This will be the LDP’s most extensive disciplinary action since it punished more than 50 members in 2005 after they opposed a bill to privatize the state-run postal service under then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
In an internal probe, 85 LDP members, including three nonlawmakers who plan to run in next election, were found to have failed to declare around 580 million yen ($3.83 million) as revenue in their political funds reports for five years through 2022.
Earlier this week, LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu 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.
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