Not Punishing the Supreme Leader

Liberal Democratic Party mostly decided the punishment on the lawmakers who had been involved in the slush fund scandal. Some leaders of Abe faction will be recommended to leave the party, while others will be punished with lighter penalties. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who had been the leader of his faction, will not be punished at all, leaving a possibility of being criticized as escaping from responsibility of losing public credibility on politics.

LDP Secretary General, Toshimitsu Motegi, requested convocation of the Political Ethics Committee to discuss how the lawmakers involved in the slush fund scandal should be punished. “We face severe criticisms of the people on unjust management of fundraising party by the factions, and decided that it is necessary to punish the members related to the scandal,” said Motegi in his press conference.

 

The party members to be punished are 39 lawmakers who should have taken appropriate action as the leaders of the faction which members did not recorded on political fund report, or the lawmakers with inappropriate reports amounting ¥5 million or more in recent five years. Although LDP listed 82 lawmakers who received kickbacks from the faction and failed in reporting them, LDP will punish less than a half of them.

 

Newspapers reported that the party considered punishing Ryu Shionoya, former chairman of Abe faction, and Hiroshige Seko, former leader of the Councillors in the faction, with penalty of recommendation for departing the party. Those two leaders were in the meetings of Abe faction in 2022, discussing how to deal with the kickback system. Although former head of the faction, Shinzo Abe, decided to abolish it, they did not implement it, in spite of their position to do it.

 

The rest of four members in the meetings, Yasutoshi Nishimura and Hakubun Shimomura, is considered to receive the same penalty or lighter. Recommendation for department is the second hardest penalty, next to expulsion, among the eight levels of disciplines. Lawmakers who left the party have to run for next election without financial support from the party. While a lawmaker who received suspension of party membership is regarded as returning back to the party after certain period of time, those who recommended to depart will not be supposed to returning.

 

The party is not going to punish former Secretary General, Toshihiro Nikai, who decided not to run for next election, regardless the fact that he had been the leader of Nikai faction and his private secretary was indicted. It is also expected that Kishida, whose faction also failed in appropriately reporting political fund, will not be punished, because even the lighter penalties such as suspension of party positions may affect his position as the supreme leader of LDP.

 

Hard criticisms both from LDP and the opposition parties go to Kishida, considering his responsibility for losing credibility of politics. LDP is expected to conclude on the punishments within this week.