Opposition Wants Ishiba to Explain Scandal to Ethics Panel; Seeks to Burnish Own Image, Win Out In Summer Election

By Kota Ifuku and Kanae Araki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

15:57 JST, March 19, 2025

Opposition parties have demanded Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba appear before the House of Representatives Deliberative Council on Political Ethics to explain his gift certificate scandal. Their aim is to keep creating opportunities to pressure the prime minister and prevent him from putting the matter to rest.

“This is a problem with the very nature of the Liberal Democratic Party. I want the prime minister to appear before the ethics committee and fulfill his responsibility to be accountable,” Hirofumi Ryu, the chair of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s Diet Affairs Committee, said at a party meeting Tuesday.

Ryu later met with his LDP counterpart Tetsushi Sakamoto in the Diet Building and conveyed the request, which Sakamoto reportedly did not accept. The CDPJ intends to seek explanations from Ishiba after a budget for fiscal 2025 is passed.

The opposition parties are aiming to inflict damage on the LDP by creating dramatic scenes showcasing their determination to uncover the truth.

They also believe it will benefit them to tackle this summer’s House of Councillors election with Ishiba still representing the LDP. The approval rate for Ishiba’s Cabinet is dropping.

CDPJ Secretary General Junya Ogawa told reporters Tuesday that the matter “cannot be easily swept under the carpet.”

The Japan Innovation Party and the Democratic Party for the People concur with the CDPJ, even though they are having policy consultations with the LDP.

“The prime minister should explain himself at the ethics committee soon and put an end to this,” DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki told reporters Tuesday.