Punishment on Less Than Half of Lawmakers in Scandal

The Liberal Democratic Party announced that it punished thirty-nine lawmakers with charge of inappropriate handlings of political funds brought by fundraising parties of their factions. The punishment meant that the rest of forty-three lawmakers out of all eighty-two affiliated with Abe faction and Nikai faction were not punished. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida brought harder situation on his administration, already suffering from low approval rate, by escaping from punishment on himself.

To punish the lawmakers, the party set two criteria. One is who failed in reporting the fund amounting five million yen or more. The forty-three lawmakers were under this line, being exempted from the punishment. The party imposed reprimand, the second lightest penalty, on seventeen lawmakers who failed in reporting funds between five and ten million yen.

 

Eight lawmakers who did not report between ten and twenty million yen received six months of suspension from party leadership. Five lawmakers who failed in reporting over twenty million of fund received one-year suspension of party leadership.

 

Another criteria is having been in the position of faction leader, who should have been preventing from the wrongdoings. Four leaders with Abe faction, who had been in the meeting for discussing the kickbacks in 2022, received heavy penalties. Former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura, and former Education Minister, Hakubun Shimomura, received one-year suspension of LDP membership. Former chair of Abe faction, Ryu Shionoya, and former Secretary General of LDP Councillors, Hiroshige Seko, were punished with the heaviest penalty among those lawmakers, recommendation of leaving the party. Seko immediately submitted his resignation to the party.

 

Four lawmakers with Abe and Nikai factions, including former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, were punished with one-year suspension from party leadership, even though they unreported less than twenty million yen. Former Chief of Diet Affairs in LDP Tsuyoshi Takagi was punished with suspension of LDP membership for six months.

 

Kishida, who was the head of Kishida faction involved in about thirty million mishandlings of political fund, was not punished at all. “I have to lead the party for restoring confidence of the people,” told Kishida to the reporters asked about the reason why he was not punished. Former head of Nikai faction, Toshihiro Nikai, also escaped from the punishment, even though he failed reporting over thirty million yen of funds and his private accounting manager was indicted. It is supposed that Nikai’s announcement of retirement lightened the penalty.

 

It is supposed that the people close to Kishida did not receive heavy penalty. The four leaders of Abe faction who received severe penalties did not have a close relationship with Kishida. However, Koichi Hagiuda, who was included in the penalty of one-year suspension from party leadership, was the Chair of Policy Research Council of LDP under President Kishida. Matsuno supported Kishida in the Official Residence of Prime Minister as Chief Cabinet Secretary. They were the members of Team Kishida.

 

There remain broad complaints among LDP lawmakers that the penalties make no sense, and were discretionarily decided. The biggest reason why Kishida was in a hurry to conclude on the penalty was to put a period on this issue. However, Kishida is still tangled in a complicated politics.

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