Abe Faction Swept Away

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the president of ruling Liberal Democratic Party, replaced two LDP board members with Abe faction, both of whom were suspected as involved in the slush fund scandal. Although the other factions are the targets of investigation as well, the management of political money in Abe faction appears to be further malicious than the others. News reports are focusing on who is going to be indicted by the public prosecutors. 

The chairman of Policy Research Council, Koichi Hagiuda, and the chairman of Diet Affairs Committee, Tsuyoshi Takagi, submitted their resignation to Kishida, when Kishida decided to replace four Ministers with Abe faction. Having already decided to replace Hagiuda and Takagi, Kishida waited for a week not let the replacement affect the efforts to finish the bill of budget for FY 2024.

 

Kishida appointed former Minister of Education, Kisaburo Tokai, to new chairman of LDP Policy Research Council. A veteran who is familiar to the education policies, Tokai is not affiliated to any faction, which supposedly was the biggest reason for picking him. Tokai has not been joining any cabinet for over a decade, he told the reporters that he would not escape from the responsibility on the party reform.

 

For the chairman of Diet Affairs Committee, Kishida chose Yasukazu Hamada who is another independent lawmaker and experienced Minister of Defense in Kishida Cabinet. In the replacement of former Chief Cabinet Secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, Kishida once asked Hamada to succeed Matsuno, but Hamada declined it. Although it is not clear why he accepted the chief of Diet affairs, Hamada seems to prefer to take distance from Kishida, being reluctant to join Kishida Cabinet.

 

Along with news reports revealing the details of the slush fund scandal, Kishida swept Abe people away from his administration. The Special Investigation Division of Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office searched the offices not only of Abe faction but also of Nikai faction. Nevertheless, Kishida let the Ministers with Nikai faction stay in his Cabinet. Two Ministers with Nikai faction, Minister of Justice, Ryuji Koizumi and Minister of State for Regional Revitalization, Hanako Jimi, expressed that they would leave Nikai faction, instead of stepping down as Ministers.

 

It has been reported that Abe faction did not record the money distributed to its members on the political funds report, while Nikai faction recorded that money as its spendings. The public prosecutors are likely to see Abe faction to be more malicious than other factions. The scandal is developing into the wrong governance of the biggest faction in LDP. The opposition parties recognize it not as the problem of Abe faction but of LDP as a whole. The reform of LDP politics will be at the center of discussion in Nagatacho for the time being.

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