Tokyo, Sept. 27 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party is worried that fresh attention may be directed to the issue of money and politics in the extraordinary parliamentary session beginning on Oct. 5. Behind the worry are Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s controversial appointments of two lawmakers involved in her LDP’s slush fund scandal as ministers. The two members of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country Japan’s parliament, are the first to become cabinet members among the LDP members punished over the slush fund scandal. Opposition parties are expected to grill Takaichi over the appointments, with little explanation given yet. Some LDP members are concerned that the slush fund scandal will return as a main issue in the Diet, possibly affecting the results of the unified local elections next spring. In the Sept. 17 cabinet reshuffle, Kazuo Yana and Yoshihiro Seki became agriculture and education ministers, respectively. They both belonged to the now-defunct LDP faction that had been led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Yana was suspended from his party post for six months for failing to record 17.46 million yen in political funds. Seki’s unrecorded funds totaled 8.36 million yen, and he was reprimanded. Still, both won seats in the 2024 and 2026 Lower House elections after being punished. “The slate has been wiped clean,” some within the party say. But speaking before the Lower House political ethics panel in December 2024, Yana failed to clear explanations about how the practice of returning surplus fundraising revenue to generate slush funds. Meanwhile, Seki said he had asked Abe to abolish the practice. At a press conference Friday, LDP General Council Chairman Hiroshi Kajiyama said that the two ministers should “explain their positions in the Diet.” Yoshitaka Saito, Diet affairs head of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters that Yana and Seki “need to fulfill accountability more than before.” “Voters’ interest in the slush fund issue is low,” a senior official of the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee said, based on the high public support ratings for the Takaichi cabinet in media opinion polls. A lawmaker involved in the scandal who has no experience in the cabinet showed expectations, saying, “We’ll be able to follow suit (of the two ministers).” Takaichi’s cabinet reshuffle apparently is aimed at securing the support of lawmakers from the Abe faction, which was the largest force in the party, ahead of the LDP presidential election next autumn, in which she hopes to be re-elected. In last year’s LDP presidential race, Takaichi garnered votes from many local assembly members. With a different money scandal still rocking the Fukuoka prefectural assembly and assembly members from the LDP, the party would suffer an additional blow ahead of the unified local elections if the slush fund scandal again comes into the spotlight. “If the number of seats falls in local elections, it will directly lead to (a decline in) the prime minister’s unifying force,” an LDP member said. “It depends on whether (the two ministers) can properly explain and convince the people,” said Yuichi Goto, Diet affairs leader of Lower House group “Chudo” made up of former members of the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance. However, the public has cast a severe eye on the CRA, which will receive 1.1 billion yen in state subsidies despite its de facto dissolution. It is to be seen how much the Chudo group can be tough on the Takaichi administration. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
