Search in Offices of Factions

The Special Investigation Division of Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office made investigative searches in the offices of Abe faction (Seiwa-kai) and Nikai faction (Shisui-kai) on Monday. Both factions are suspected to have distributed secret slush funds to its members. While Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had replaced his cabinet members with Abe faction, he announced that the ministers with Nikai faction would stay. This is a logic of politics in Liberal Democratic Party which is hard to understand for the public.

The prosecutors entered into the buildings, in which each of two factions’ office is, in Monday morning, and investigated in the offices until the afternoon. It was very unusual scene that the prosecutors made such a major investigation on the political power center, generating negative images on the politics in Japan distorted by illegal money.

 

According to the reports, Abe faction is suspected to have distributed ¥500 million of slush fund raised by selling ticket fundraising parties between 2018 and 2022. The amount of distributed money in Nikai faction is supposed to be something over ¥100 million. Both factions distributed to their members the surplus of ticket sales over the quota imposed on each member.

 

The difference of those two factions is not only about the amount of slush fund. Although both factions recorded the sales for quotas as income on their political fund report and did not record the surplus of the sales, Abe faction did not record the surplus distributed to its members as spendings. Nikai faction recorded distributed money of the surplus as spendings and its member recorded it as donation from the faction. The prosecutors recognize Abe faction as worse than Nikai.

 

Kishida told to the reporters that he would make efforts to retore credibility on politics with notion of a political crisis. But he said that he would expect two ministers with Nikai faction in Kishida Cabinet, Minister of Justice Ryuji Koizumi and Minister in Charge of Regional Revitalization Hanako Jimi, to responsibly continue their job. Considering that Minister of Justice is in the position to oversee the investigation on the factions, Koizumi considers leaving Nikai faction.

 

It is speculated that the prosecutors are focusing on how the lawmakers have been involved in the distribution of money. Because arresting lawmakers is not easy, the prosecutors are expected to have thorough investigation into the systems and facts of dealing with political funds by the factions in LDP by next ordinary session of the Diet, expected to be convocated in January.

 

Even if the office has not searched by the prosecutors, Kishida faction has been found as another faction to have distributed slush funds. Although Kishida resigned as the head of his faction, he would not be free from responsibility on the slush fund scandal. There is no mood in LDP to completely eliminate the factions. Kishida is facing difficulty to restore his approval rate which has been showing steep decline.

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