Japan LDP Lawmakers Forming Faction-Like Groups

Tokyo, April 3 (Jiji Press)–Liberal Democratic Party members are forming intraparty groups in a bid to expand their sway in the Japanese ruling party, after most of the party’s factions disbanded following a slush funds scandal. On Thursday, former internal affairs minister Ryota Takeda held the first meeting of a new study group he heads, in the Diet, the country’s parliament. The meeting was attended by about 20 people, including former postdisaster reconstruction minister Katsuei Hirasawa, who, like Takeda, belonged to a now-defunct faction led by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai. “We’ll create a new political role model that is completely different from factions in form,” Takeda said at the meeting. To differentiate itself from former factions, the study group will not file as a political organization. It will meet once a week in the daytime to discuss security, food and energy issues. The group will have an election strategy unit to help members’ campaigns, a function similar to that of factions. However, LDP policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi, a former Nikai faction member who ran in last year’s party leadership election, chose not to join the study group. He is trying to shore up support on his own, including by holding meetings with lawmakers who back him. Meanwhile, about 10 younger members of the former Nikai faction, including Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki, held their own meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday night. Given these circumstance, it remains unclear how much Takeda can consolidate support among former Nikai faction members. Junichi Ishii, the LDP’s secretary-general in the House of Councillors, the upper Diet chamber, plans to launch his own intraparty group. He is inviting to his group Upper House LDP members including those not from his former faction, which was led by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. About 10 Upper House members from a defunct faction once led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gathered in the Diet on Thursday to exchange opinions about Ishii’s new group. Meanwhile, LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Koichi Hagiuda and other former Abe faction members have held gatherings to confirm their unity. Motegi and former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are also meeting with young lawmakers to assert their presence. “They just want to stand out, and their ulterior motives are obvious,” an LDP heavyweight said of the moves related to former factions. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]