LDP Membership Down 62,000 Apparently Due to Funds Scandal; LDP Secretary General ‘Disappointed’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:13 JST, March 5, 2025

Membership in the Liberal Democratic Party dropped for the second consecutive year in 2024, falling by about 62,000, the ruling party said on Tuesday.

The decrease last year was apparently due to the political funds scandal, which involved factions of the LDP.

As of the end of 2024, the party had 1,028,662 members, down 62,413 from a year earlier. The drop was far greater than in 2023, when membership decreased by 33,688.

The LDP has been engulfed by the scandal in which some of its factions were found to have violated the Political Funds Control Law.

At the press conference, LDP Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama said he was disappointed that the party was unable to reach its goal of 1.2 million members.

“We will sincerely accept the outcome,” he said. “The number of members a political party has is an indicator for how much support it enjoys. I am grateful that we were able to keep our membership above 1 million, even though we face many challenges.”