LDP to Endorse 37 Candidates Involved in Slush Fund Scandal

Tokyo, Jan. 22 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will officially endorse 37 candidates involved in its high-profile slush fund scandal in the Feb. 8 general election. The individuals are included in the party’s initial list of official candidates for the House of Representatives election. In the previous Lower House election in 2024, the LDP refused to officially endorse some of these scandal-tainted candidates. However, the current party leadership under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi apparently believes that they should no longer be punished. As the scandal is still far from being fully unraveled, some in the party are concerned that officially endorsing scandal-tainted candidates could reignite public criticism. During an interview on Wednesday, LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki explained that the party decided not to impose penalties on scandal-tainted party members this time, as they had already faced public judgment in the previous general election. In the previous Lower House election, held under then Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, there were 46 candidates involved in the slush fund scandal. The LDP refused to endorse 12 of them and excluded the rest from its proportional representation candidate lists. As a result, 28 of them suffered losses. For the upcoming election, the LDP has decided to officially endorse 37 of the 46 individuals, including former industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, Koichi Hagiuda, acting secretary-general of the LDP, and five others who missed the party’s official endorsement in the previous election. The remaining nine include those who have left the party. “The problem has already been resolved effectively,” LDP election strategy chief Keiji Furuya, close to Takaichi, told reporters. A party source said that the prime minister hopes to solidify her footing in the party by supporting former members of a now-defunct intraparty faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and deeply involved in the scandal. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]