Kishida Sees No Problem with Choosing Scandal-Involved Personnel for Political Reform Headquarters

The Yomiuri Shimbun

2:00 JST, January 15, 2024

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday that he saw no problem with selecting to serve on the political reform headquarters nine members of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Abe faction believed to be involved in the party’s fundraising scandal.

Nine out of 10 Diet members from the Abe faction selected as members of the political reform headquarters are suspected of failing to report some of their political fundraising party income as political funds. Kishida, who is also LDP president, told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office that “the idea of excluding certain people is not appropriate.”

The political reform headquarters consists of a total of 38 members, including the prime minister. Ten members from the Abe faction, the largest number of any of the six factions in the party, are in the headquarters. The prime minister intends to continue to involve the nine members in discussions on party reform, explaining, “We have asked those who have served as the director of the Youth Division and the director of the Women’s Affairs Division to join us in order to reflect the opinions of the party’s leadership as well as mid-level and younger members of the party.”