Japan’s LDP Pushes to Convene Ethics Panel This Year, but Lawmakers Involved in Funds Scandal Sound Rebellious Note

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:00 JST, December 10, 2024

The Liberal Democratic Party on Monday sought support from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in convening an ethics panel of the House of Representatives at an early date, saying that some lawmakers involved in the LDP’s political funds scandal are hoping to offer explanations to the panel.

The LDP leadership aims to have all 15 lawmakers who underreported funds attend the hearings of the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics, including former LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Koichi Hagiuda who belonged to former Abe faction. However, the party is having a difficult time convincing the lawmakers to attend.

Cautious on the numbers

“I asked the CDPJ to convene the council because some of our party’s lawmakers want to attend its hearings on the issue of underreported funds,” the LDP’s Hideki Murai, chief secretary for the council of the ruling bloc, told reporters after he spoke with his counterpart for the opposition parties, Manabu Terata of the CDPJ, at the Diet Building.

In May, opposition parties asked that 44 LDP lawmakers involved in the scandal be screened by the panel, which excluded core members of the former Abe and Nikai factions who had already attended the council’s hearings, and the request was unanimously approved. That number dropped from 44 to 15 after many lawmakers lost their seats in the last lower house election or retired.

As to when the council should be convened, Murai said, “as soon as possible.” However, he was cautious about how many lawmakers would attend, saying that arrangements were still underway.

Some in the former Abe faction, including former Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, expressed their willingness to attend, but not all the relevant members of the faction have agreed to do so.

Persistent opposition

Tatsuo Fukuda, the LDP’s executive acting secretary general and a member of the former Abe faction, has been playing the central role in confirming whether each member will attend. However, there has been persistent opposition from the lawmakers concerned, with one mid-ranking lawmaker saying, “I won the election, so that should be enough.”

LDP Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama met with Hagiuda on Thursday and asked him to convince the lawmakers to attend the council’s hearings.

In response, Hagiuda asked Moriyama to resolve the issue before the end of this year as a precondition for their attendance. Then he talked with the lawmakers about how to handle the issue. However, Hagiuda failed to reach an agreement with them, with one saying, “I doubt the issue will really be resolved this year.”

Hagiuda is said to be distrustful of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also LDP president. In the last general election, Ishiba decided not to endorse Hagiuda as an official candidate, arguing he had not offered an explanation to the ethics panel as he should have. Hagiuda believes the treatment was unfair since he was instructed by the party leadership at the time not to attend the panel’s hearings.

The LDP leadership plans to convene the ethics panels of both houses of the Diet and resolve the issue this year so it will not affect next summer’s House of Councillors election.

However, members of the former Abe faction have expressed concern, with one member saying, “Since it will be difficult for those 15 lawmakers to explain more than the core members [who have already attended the panel’s hearings], I’m sure there will be criticism about the issue not being any further elucidated.”