Dissolution of Factions

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced to the reporters in Thursday evening that he was considering dissolving Kochi Policy Study Group, or Kishida faction, in Liberal democratic Party. Given a news report which indicated that Special Investigation Department of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office would indict a former financial officer of Kishida faction, Kishida took the dissolution into account to implement his suggestion for party reform to restore public confidence on politics. The slush fund scandal in LDP is developing into fundamental structure of the ruling party.

Asahi Shimbun reported in Thursday morning that the public prosecutors had decided to indict an ex-accounting official of Kishida faction with suspicion of violating Political Funds Control Act. It is suspected that Kishida faction failed in reporting ¥30 million, most of which is income from fundraising parties between 2018 and 2020. While Kishida faction recorded the outgoing “kickback” to its members, it reported its income from fundraising parties less than true amount.

 

Kishida issued a comment that the failure had been small mistake in accounting soon after the news report of Asahi. But he accumulated consultation over the issue with leaders of his faction, including Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, and announced his consideration of dissolution of his faction in the evening. “If it contributes to restoring confidence on politics, such thing should be considered,” Kishida told, answering a question about the dissolution.

 

According to the news reports, Kishida considers withdrawing registration of the faction as a political organization which can legally hold fundraising parties. The office of Kishida faction will be closed. Kishida did not mention the possibility of other factions in LDP to dissolve them or not. A day after the announcement, the consideration of dissolution has changed into decision.

 

There was no consultation about the dissolution of Kishida faction to other leaders of LDP factions. Some lawmakers with other factions, namely Aso faction and Motegi faction which have not been investigated by the public prosecutors, complained about Kishida’s abrupt announcement. For them, Kishida looked to be solely doing right to defend his position as prime minister and president of LDP.

 

Following Kishida’s decision, Nikai faction and Abe faction, both of which were also suspected as failing in reporting money related to fundraising parties, decided to dissolve themselves on Friday. Those factions had reportedly been distributing greater amount of money than Kishida faction to their members. Aso faction and Motegi faction are facing difficult choice: stay as factions or dissolve themselves to eliminate faction in the party.

 

In the history of LDP, there were discussions about elimination of factions. Factions survived those crises with an argument that factions are everywhere in our ordinary life. There is a speculation that factions will reappear in the future as zombies.

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