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Public dissatisfaction with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party) over a slush fund scandal involving at least 970 million yen (US$6.5 million) in undeclared income from political fundraising parties held by a faction of the Liberal Democratic Party is growing. It’s obvious.
The Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating is already in dangerous territory, below 30%, and has fallen below 20% since the end of last year due to the slush fund scandal. What has stirred public outrage about this scandal is not just the relatively small amount of money involved, but also society’s expectation that everyone, regardless of rank or status, should abide by rules and laws. It also extends to what the political class perceives as its natural rights.
While Mr. Kishida’s position is becoming increasingly untenable, the LDP’s survival is worsening further. Since its inauguration in 1955, it has been in power for nearly 70 years, with the only exceptions being 11 months from 1993 to 1994 and more than three years from 2009 to 2012. Scandals and corruption revelations have brought down prime ministers before, but the party has always found a way to bounce back. Japan’s opposition parties, despite their ability to damage the Liberal Democratic Party and perpetuate crisis politics, still seem unable to position themselves as a credible alternative government.
Japan is said to be a one-party and half-party country.
In 1974, Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was forced to resign due to corruption.Koshiyamakai (Niigata Prefecture Mountaineering Association) has been revealed. Tanaka was arrested in 1976 after it was revealed that during his tenure as Prime Minister (1972-1974), he had accepted bribes from the American aerospace company Lockheed to secure a contract to sell aircraft to All Nippon Airways.
In 1989, Noboru Takeshita was forced to resign as prime minister due to his involvement in the Recruit scandal, in which the human resources and recruitment company Recruit distributed stock market profits to influential politicians and businessmen.
In 1992, it was discovered that Sagawa Express, a major delivery service company, had made large unreported donations to high-ranking politicians, especially Shin Kanemaru, the Liberal Democratic Party power broker who was forced to resign. Mr. Kanamaru was later arrested after police found millions of dollars in bearer bonds, stocks, cash and gold bars at his home.
Electoral and administrative reforms passed in the 1990s, when the Liberal Democratic Party first lost power, “led to a significant reduction in corruption.” After the reform, scandals increased due to improved transparency, but they were not on the scale of “the Lockheed, Recruit, and Sagawa incidents.”
As Ben Ascione explains in this week’s Lead article, Prime Minister Kishida is seen as “increasingly unlikely to survive beyond the end of his term as Liberal Democratic Party president in September 2024.”
None of the responses to the slush fund scandal were sufficient to restore public trust. Mr. Kishida first tried to make Abe’s faction responsible for most of the undeclared income. He reshuffled his cabinet in mid-December 2023, “replacing the positions of pro-Abe members and vice ministers and parliamentary vice ministers in the cabinet.”
Mr. Kishida established a political reform task force in January, but failed to reach agreement on major policies. Kishida then announced that his own faction, the Koike-kai, would be disbanded, leaving it to other factions to decide their fate. The Abe faction and the Nikai faction followed suit, but the Aso faction and the Mogi faction continued to resist pressure to disband and announced their intention to continue as a “policy group.”
Mr. Ascione said, “Mr. Kishida is in an impossible position, trying to respond to people’s demands for substantive political reform while avoiding alienating the LDP veterans who helped install Mr. Kishida as prime minister.” It seems that there is.” This law applies to members of Congress whose secretaries or accountants are found to have violated the Political Funds Control Act.
Ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election in September 2024 and the next general election scheduled for the end of October 2025, “the battle for Mr. Kishida’s successor is currently accelerating behind closed doors.”
Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is believed to be supporting reform-oriented candidates such as Digital Economy Minister Taro Kono, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in order to eliminate the negative image of the Liberal Democratic Party. . Former Prime Minister Taro Aso is said to be reluctant to change the party structure and supports Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and the prime minister. [LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu] Mogi”.
“Whether the faction is revived under a new banner or effectively abolished, and the seriousness of political financing reform efforts, will largely depend on who wins the race to lead the post-Kishida administration,” Ascione said. concludes.
Whoever becomes Kishida’s successor will likely have a tough job ahead of him. Unless both parties can unite the fractious Liberal Democratic Party and restore public trust, Japanese politics will usher in a new era of revolving-door leadership and uncertainty.
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