Argument over Treatment of Lawmakers Involved in the Scandal

As it reaches the presidential election a month ahead, the Liberal Democratic Party reveals its fundamental structure of depending on factions which caused fatal scandal for Fumio Kishida administration over management of political fund. While some possible candidates for its presidential election uphold strict measures against the lawmakers who were involved in the slush fund scandal, others indicate generous treatment on them, expecting their votes in the election. The party is exposed to criticisms of the opposition parties. 

In his press conference announcing running for the president on August 26, Digital Minister Taro Kono required the lawmakers who had accepted secret fund to return the same amount of money to be registered as an official candidate of the LDP in next election of both Houses of the Diet. “It is hard to be understood (by the public) that putting a period on the scandal by simply correcting papers,” said Kono. He indicated that the returned money would ultimately go to the governmental budget.

 

Former Minister of Defense Shigeru Ishiba also referred to a strict treatment on the secret-fund lawmakers. In his press conference on August 24, Ishiba insisted on thorough discussion over how the lawmakers involved in the slush fund scandal would be treated in the next election of both Houses of the Diet. However, receiving criticisms from LDP members affiliated with former Abe faction, which has about ninety lawmakers and was an epicenter of the scandal, Ishiba weakened the nuance to “It is what next leader decides.”

 

Members of Abe faction opposed the idea of returning the fund. Former supreme advisor of Abe faction Seishiro Eto dismissed the need for returning and insisted that the fund he received from the faction had been used “one hundred percent” for political purposes. LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, who are supposed to run for the president, left a general comment that the new law for controlling political fund would not apply to past activities.

 

Former Minister for Internal Affairs and Communication Seiko Noda makes her stance clear. “Why not let those lawmakers in the scandal win in the election by themselves?” told Noda. Noda was stripped her status as an official candidate of the LDP in the Lower House election in 2005, as a penalty of opposing to postal reform led by Jun-ichiro Koizumi, and she won by herself defeating a rival candidate with the LDP.

 

Former Minister for Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi is known as soft to the scandal. In his press conference for his candidacy on August 19, he would appoint lawmakers who had not received official penalty. It was not clear what “official penalty” meant. Eleven lawmakers out of twenty-four who attended Kobayashi’s press conference were with former Abe faction.

 

While the slush fund scandal caused standing down of Kishida, he has not finished investigation of the scandal. How the system of distributing the fund was built has not been disclosed. “It is not a story about that a shoplifter will become innocent when the items are returned,” said the head of Democratic Party for the People Yuichiro Tamaki.