Struggle over a Hearing on Accounting Manager

Without a simple majority in the House of Representatives, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) struggles against the opposition parties on inviting former accounting manager of Abe faction to the Committee on Budget. While the oppositions hope to keep the issue alive until the Upper House election this summer, the LDP wants to terminate the prolonged discussion over the slush fund scandal. The committee still cannot determine the date to begin discussion on FY 2025 budget. 

The public prosecutors indicted former accounting manager of Abe faction, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, with charge of wrong reporting about kickback fund of the faction. Tokyo District Court sentenced Matsumoto last September three years of imprisonment with suspension of five years. Matsumoto requested the LDP not to invite him to the Diet, because he had already told about the scandal in the court and had no further information to reveal.

 

The opposition parties have been demanding a hearing from Matsumoto in the committee before the convocation of ordinary session of the Diet. Although the Constitution of Japan guarantees both Houses to “conduct investigations in relation to government,” the opposition parties request non-binding hearing, in which perjury will not be applied, for the LDP to be easy to accept.

 

In the negotiation by ranked members in the committee on January 28th, the parties did not reach an agreement on whether they would have a hearing to Matsumoto. It is usual that the hearing is set with unanimous approval from the parties. The chairman of the committee, Jun Azumi, has not decided to take votes for having the hearing. If the voting is taken, the healing will be set, because the opposition parties have a majority in the committee. Azumi is from the largest opposition party, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ).

 

While the Upper House continues to have hearings from the lawmakers involved in the scandal, the LDP is reluctant to make further investigations in the Lower House. The coalition partner of LDP, Komeito, announced that it would vote yes for having hearing from Matsumoto, demonstrating its willingness to clear the questions about the scandal. As long as negotiation over the hearing continues, the committee cannot start discussion on FY 2025 budget, on which Ishiba administration puts the highest priority.

 

Pressured by the opposition parties, the LDP accepted on January 29th to decide the hearing by voting, bargaining for starting discussion on FY 2025 budget from January 31. It is likely that Matsumoto will appear before the committee as the result of voting by committee members, because the LDP does not have a majority. The LDP still cannot settle the slush fund scandal which is stemming from the biggest faction once led by Shinzo Abe.

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