Decoupling of Abe Faction

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday replaced four Ministers affiliated to Abe faction in Liberal Democratic Party, which was suspected to have been distributing secret money to its members. Two LDP board members submitted Kishida of their resignation, representing frustration in Abe faction about being victimized in the scandal of LDP. There appeared a deep rift in the party. Kishida did not explain how he would take responsibility for the scandal as the president of LDP. Even after decoupling Abe people, Kishida administration is still in jeopardy.

Kishida replaced Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, who were reportedly received over ¥10 million of secret money for the sales of fundraising party tickets, with Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister for Foreign Affairs in Kishida Cabinet and one of the colleagues of Kishida faction. Asahi Shimbun reported that Kishida firstly offered the post to former Minister of Defense Yasukazu Hamada, but Hamada declined it.

For the successor of Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura, Kishida appointed Ken Saito, former Minister of Justice. Meanwhile, Kishida replaced Minster for Internal Affairs and Communication Junji Suzuki to former Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ichiro Miyashita to former Minister of State for Regional Revitalization Tetsushi Sakamoto. Matsuno, Nishimura, Suzuki and Miyashita could not be excluded from the recipients of the secret money as the members of Abe faction.

The Chairman of Policy Research Council Koichi Hagiuda and Chairman of Diet Affairs Tsuyoshi Takagi handed Kishida their resignation on Thursday. Although Kishida had not unequivocally said when they would be replaced, the two leaders of Abe faction walked out of Kishida administration. Not only Abe faction but Nikai and Kishida were reported as distributing the secret money to the members. Some in Abe faction interpreted the behavior of Hagiuda and Takagi as the protest against Kishida.

One of the members of Abe faction, State Minister of Defense Hiroyuki Miyazawa revealed on Wednesday that he had been instructed by the faction not to record the received money to the political funds report and not to say anything about it. The Special Investigation Department of Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office is going to make further interviews to the members of Abe faction.

In the press conference at the closing of Diet session on Thursday, Kishida told that he regretted the situation that political money in LDP was doubted. He promised the reform of LDP to restore credibility, but did not tell how. “I will make it clear based on the facts which will be confirmed later,” told Kishida about the reform. It may mean that if the criminal investigation is going to be focused on only Abe faction, exclusion of Abe faction will be justified.

It was very unusual comment for the top leader. The LDP leaders have been saying that “When a scandal is revealed, politician is responsible for explaining it for him/herself” This time, no one with Abe faction has explained about the sandal, saying that the investigation is ongoing. Nevertheless, Kishida has ousted only the members of Abe faction, as if only Abe faction was wrong. It is inevitable that LDP members regard Kishida’s action as hostility against Abe faction.

Excluding Abe faction does not mean removing all the problems from the administration. Other factions including Kishida’s own are responsible for LDP secret money scandal as well. If someone in LDP is arrested with the scandal, Kishida will not be able to escape from the responsibility as the president. 

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