Dispute over Political Ethics Committee

The House of Representatives is going to have a Political Ethics Committee (PEC) to discuss the slush fund scandal in ruling Liberal Democratic Party this week. While the opposition parties required fifty-one LDP lawmakers to appear to the committee and take questions, LDP offered only five, including some leaders with Abe faction, the epicenter of scandal. LDP demands the committee to be closed to the public, inviting doubts on the words of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who insisted on taking responsibility for explanation.

As Kishida decided to have the committee earlier this month, the opposition parties requested all the lawmakers who was suspected to have been involved in the scandal should answer the questions at the committee. LDP released the result of its internal investigation, which found that eighty-five members had received fund from factions as return of ticket sales beyond quota.

 

Fifty-one out of those eighty-five are members of House of Representatives. That is why the opposition parties wanted them to appear at PEC in House of Representatives. Whether the rest of thirty-one members of House of Councillors, -- three out of eighty-five are not lawmakers -- will attend the committee will be decided separately. Each House has PEC.

 

To the request of the opposition parties, LDP offered five lawmakers to attend the PEC in House of Representatives. Two lawmakers, Ryu Shionoya and Ryota Takeda, raised their hands to go to PEC. Shionoya was the chairman of Abe faction when it dissolved last month and Takeda was at the post of secretary general of Nikai faction. After some effort of coordination inside LDP, Yasutoshi Nishimura, Tsuyoshi Takagi and Hirokazu Matsuno decided to join them. Those three are among “Five Guys” of Abe faction and experienced secretary general of the faction.

 

One of the Five Guys, Koichi Hagiuda, is not on the list. Hagiuda received the third biggest amount of fund out of those eighty-five members. Asahi Shimbun reported that LDP asked Hagiuda not to attend PEC because he did not experience secretary general of Abe faction. LDP drew the line at secretary general to dismiss the opposition parties’ request for all the lawmakers related. The biggest receiver, Toshihiro Nikai, is not on the list, too.

 

The opposition parties accepted LDP’s offer, giving higher priority on having PEC as soon as possible. LDP is now reluctant to open the discussion to the public, while the opposition parties demand full-open. LDP offered no observer, no camara and no recording. In the discussion at Committee on Budget in House of Representatives on Monday, Kishida left it to the decision of House. Former Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, Constitutional Democratic Party, accused Kishida in his question at the budget committee, “You are the obstruction of political reform.”

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