Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida bows in apology for his governing party’s corruption scandal during a political ethics committee at parliament in Tokyo Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (Japan Pool/Kyodo News via AP)
BY MARI YAMAGUCHI
February 29, 2024Share
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s beleaguered prime minister renewed his apology over his governing party’s corruption scandal, promising to not hold any more parties himself as leader during a political ethics committee Thursday.
Fumio Kishida has fought against plummeting support ratings since his governing party’s corruption scandal rocked the government. The scandal, considered the biggest in decades, centers on political funds raised through party event tickets bought by individuals, companies and organizations. It led to 10 people — lawmakers and their aides — being indicted in January.
While Kishida himself is not the focus of the scandal and was not even invited to the hearing, the surprise announcement of his personal appearance broke a deadlock between the opposition lawmakers and his governing party Wednesday when the five implicated attendants refused to go public, holding up a hearing. Kishida expressed a “sense of crisis” that the deadlock on the hearing would further deepen the public’s distrust in politics.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s resistance to have a fully open session fueled public criticism that Kishida’s party is taking the corruption lightly and trying to hide something.
Kishida says he’s determined to break Japan’s ruling party from its practice of money politics
Japan PM Kishida is fighting a party corruption scandal. Here’s a look at what it’s about
Kishida’s action could help ease criticisms that he was too slow and lax in addressing the public’s distrust and taking anti-corruption measures.
In his opening statement, Kishida renewed his apology for triggering public distrust in politics, and promised to take leadership in reforming his party, saying seniority-based tradition, lack of compliance and a sense of privilege among lawmakers need to be removed if they were part of the problem.
Kishida said he volunteered to appear at the hearing to provide an explanation as head of the LDP. But he brushed off questions from opposition lawmakers seeking further details about the fundraising problems, such as when and how they began. Kishida said the governing party’s internal probe focused on preventive measures instead of digging deeper into details of the wrongdoings.
Former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, now an executive of main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized Kishida for holding a number of his own fundraising parties. Kishida in turn promised not to hold any more of what he called “benkyo-kai,” or study meetings, during his leadership.
Asked about his own faction’s accounting irregularity, which had to be corrected, and its prior status, he said documents were lost and details were unknown.
Kishida doesn’t have to call a parliamentary election until 2025, but his party has set a leadership vote for September.
The ethics committee is tasked with determining whether a lawmaker violated political ethics standards and should be held responsible, but critics say it’s largely a show and any serious investigative role is not expected.
Its hearings can be held in a closed meeting, but all but nine of its previous hearings were held publicly.
More than 80 LDP lawmakers, most of them belonging to a faction previously led by assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, acknowledged not reporting funds in possible violation of the Political Funds Control Law. The money was alleged to have gone into unmonitored slush funds in the systematic long-term practice.
Kishida removed a number of ministers from his Cabinet and others from party executive posts, while some stepped down in the sandal, though support ratings for his government dwindled to around 20%.
The prime minister has announced the dissolving of his faction following the scandal, and has established an internal task force to make reforms. But half of its members are linked to the scandal, raising questions about how much it can achieve.
The LDP has governed postwar Japan almost without interruption and has repeatedly had corruption scandals followed by promises for cleaner politics.
Kishida and a former Internal Affairs Minister Ryota Takeda, who belongs to another powerful faction, were to appear at the hearing Thursday. Four Abe-faction members, including former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and former Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, were set to show up Friday.
Yomiuri Editorial
Kishida at Political Ethics Panel: Prime Minister Should Provide Meaningful Answers
Editorial
February 29, 2024
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s willingness to help resolve confusion in the Diet by showing a good example is commendable. He needs to carefully explain the political funds issue, not just give superficial answers.
Regarding the Political Funds Control Law violation scandal involving the Liberal Democratic Party, the prime minister expressed his intention to attend a meeting of the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics of the House of Representatives, saying, “As president of the party, I will fulfill my accountability in a setting open to the media.” The council’s meeting will start today.
The ruling and opposition parties had previously agreed to hold a meeting of the council on Wednesday and Thursday to question five senior members from the two LDP factions once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and former LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai. However, the two sides could not reach a consensus on whether the meeting should be open or closed to the media, and the Wednesday session was not held.
Due to the political funds scandal, the approval ratings of both the Kishida Cabinet and the LDP have declined significantly. Kishida likely decided to attend the meeting out of a sense of crisis that his administration would not be able to survive if he failed, as prime minister, to help the council to meet. This will be the first time for a sitting prime minister to appear before the council.
The prime minister’s intention to attend the meeting has prompted senior members of the Abe and Nikai factions to attend as well. They should provide concrete and detailed explanations of when they started making the “hidden funds” and how they used the funds.
Political reform is an important theme in the current Diet session. However, conflict between the ruling and opposition blocs over the political funds issue should not be allowed to delay deliberations on the fiscal 2024 budget proposal and important bills.
It is hard to deny that the prime minister’s own explanations have been insufficient, and that this has increased distrust in politics.
In the scandal, a faction that he had chaired for more than a decade until last year was also found to have made false entries in its political funds reports, totaling about ¥30 million, and a criminal charge was filed against the faction’s former accounting official. The prime minister has only stated that “clerical errors were repeated.”
The government’s ministerial code of conduct, adopted in 2001, stipulates that the prime minister and cabinet ministers refrain from holding large parties, but the prime minister held seven political fundraising parties in 2022.
However, the prime minister has insisted that the parties in 2020 were “study sessions,” repeatedly stating that he did not violate the ministerial code of conduct. This is not the way to regain the public’s trust.
In the negotiations between the ruling and opposition blocs over the council’s meeting, the LDP’s response became confused. The confusion reportedly was caused by the LDP leadership’s failure to adequately confirm the wishes of faction executives as to whether the council’s meeting would be held in the open. Many have voiced questions over the coordination ability of the LDP leadership.
It cannot be denied that the prime minister’s adherence to surprise tactics and his decision to dissolve the Kishida faction without sufficient consultation with senior party officials has dampened the mood within the party.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 29, 2024)
Japan PM Kishida’s Disapproval Rate Hits Record as Scandals Drag On
Isabel Reynolds, Bloomberg News
Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, during a budget committee session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Kishida will seek to stop his ruling party’s factions from fundraising and competing for leadership positions, after a money scandal sent its public support to the lowest on record in one poll last week. , Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- The disapproval rate of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hit a record in a poll, as voters showed dissatisfaction with what many see as shortcomings in clearing up political scandals months ahead of a party leadership election.
In a survey by the Mainichi newspaper posted online Monday, some 82% of respondents said they disapproved of Kishida’s cabinet, up 10 percentage points on the previous month and the worst for any premier since the paper started conducting such polls in 1947. His approval fell seven percentage points to 14%.
Kishida’s support also slipped to 21% in a separate poll by the Asahi newspaper and stayed flat at 24% in a survey by the Yomiuri.
The polls come ahead of a September election for leadership of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which could see Kishida ousted in favor of a more popular candidate. No general election need be held until 2025.
A slush fund scandal that led to a series of arrests and indictments prompted Kishida to disband his faction within the party and press other groups to distance themselves from money as well as fighting over top positions. His efforts to tackle the problem of undeclared income, which has cast a shadow over many of the LDP’s most senior lawmakers, are seen as inadequate by most voters, polls show.
More than three quarters of respondents to the Yomiuri newspaper poll said they didn’t think steps taken so far, such as a survey of party lawmakers, would lead to transparency over what had happened. More than 90% said they didn’t think the leaders of the party factions had provided sufficient explanations of the scandal.
Perceptions that Kishida has failed to clamp down hard enough come as the economy unexpectedly slipped into recession, a development that could further undermine public support.
Read more: Japan Economy’s Slide Into Recession Prompts Caution on BOJ Bets
An earlier scandal over the LDP’s connections with a fringe South Korean-based religious group has also re-emerged recently. Opposition lawmakers are calling on the education minister to resign over alleged dealings with the sect, which has a long list of court rulings against it over taking excessive donations from followers.
Nonetheless, opposition parties have been unable to capitalize on Kishida’s woes, with none of them boasting support of more than single figures in recent polls.
Feb 19, 2024
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Kishida at Political Ethics Panel: Prime Minister Should Provide Meaningful Answers
Editorial
February 29, 2024
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s willingness to help resolve confusion in the Diet by showing a good example is commendable. He needs to carefully explain the political funds issue, not just give superficial answers.
Regarding the Political Funds Control Law violation scandal involving the Liberal Democratic Party, the prime minister expressed his intention to attend a meeting of the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics of the House of Representatives, saying, “As president of the party, I will fulfill my accountability in a setting open to the media.” The council’s meeting will start today.
The ruling and opposition parties had previously agreed to hold a meeting of the council on Wednesday and Thursday to question five senior members from the two LDP factions once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and former LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai. However, the two sides could not reach a consensus on whether the meeting should be open or closed to the media, and the Wednesday session was not held.
Due to the political funds scandal, the approval ratings of both the Kishida Cabinet and the LDP have declined significantly. Kishida likely decided to attend the meeting out of a sense of crisis that his administration would not be able to survive if he failed, as prime minister, to help the council to meet. This will be the first time for a sitting prime minister to appear before the council.
The prime minister’s intention to attend the meeting has prompted senior members of the Abe and Nikai factions to attend as well. They should provide concrete and detailed explanations of when they started making the “hidden funds” and how they used the funds.
Political reform is an important theme in the current Diet session. However, conflict between the ruling and opposition blocs over the political funds issue should not be allowed to delay deliberations on the fiscal 2024 budget proposal and important bills.
It is hard to deny that the prime minister’s own explanations have been insufficient, and that this has increased distrust in politics.
In the scandal, a faction that he had chaired for more than a decade until last year was also found to have made false entries in its political funds reports, totaling about ¥30 million, and a criminal charge was filed against the faction’s former accounting official. The prime minister has only stated that “clerical errors were repeated.”
The government’s ministerial code of conduct, adopted in 2001, stipulates that the prime minister and cabinet ministers refrain from holding large parties, but the prime minister held seven political fundraising parties in 2022.
However, the prime minister has insisted that the parties in 2020 were “study sessions,” repeatedly stating that he did not violate the ministerial code of conduct. This is not the way to regain the public’s trust.
In the negotiations between the ruling and opposition blocs over the council’s meeting, the LDP’s response became confused. The confusion reportedly was caused by the LDP leadership’s failure to adequately confirm the wishes of faction executives as to whether the council’s meeting would be held in the open. Many have voiced questions over the coordination ability of the LDP leadership.
It cannot be denied that the prime minister’s adherence to surprise tactics and his decision to dissolve the Kishida faction without sufficient consultation with senior party officials has dampened the mood within the party.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 29, 2024)
Japan PM Kishida’s Disapproval Rate Hits Record as Scandals Drag On
Isabel Reynolds, Bloomberg News
Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, during a budget committee session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Kishida will seek to stop his ruling party’s factions from fundraising and competing for leadership positions, after a money scandal sent its public support to the lowest on record in one poll last week. , Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- The disapproval rate of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hit a record in a poll, as voters showed dissatisfaction with what many see as shortcomings in clearing up political scandals months ahead of a party leadership election.
In a survey by the Mainichi newspaper posted online Monday, some 82% of respondents said they disapproved of Kishida’s cabinet, up 10 percentage points on the previous month and the worst for any premier since the paper started conducting such polls in 1947. His approval fell seven percentage points to 14%.
Kishida’s support also slipped to 21% in a separate poll by the Asahi newspaper and stayed flat at 24% in a survey by the Yomiuri.
The polls come ahead of a September election for leadership of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which could see Kishida ousted in favor of a more popular candidate. No general election need be held until 2025.
A slush fund scandal that led to a series of arrests and indictments prompted Kishida to disband his faction within the party and press other groups to distance themselves from money as well as fighting over top positions. His efforts to tackle the problem of undeclared income, which has cast a shadow over many of the LDP’s most senior lawmakers, are seen as inadequate by most voters, polls show.
More than three quarters of respondents to the Yomiuri newspaper poll said they didn’t think steps taken so far, such as a survey of party lawmakers, would lead to transparency over what had happened. More than 90% said they didn’t think the leaders of the party factions had provided sufficient explanations of the scandal.
Perceptions that Kishida has failed to clamp down hard enough come as the economy unexpectedly slipped into recession, a development that could further undermine public support.
Read more: Japan Economy’s Slide Into Recession Prompts Caution on BOJ Bets
An earlier scandal over the LDP’s connections with a fringe South Korean-based religious group has also re-emerged recently. Opposition lawmakers are calling on the education minister to resign over alleged dealings with the sect, which has a long list of court rulings against it over taking excessive donations from followers.
Nonetheless, opposition parties have been unable to capitalize on Kishida’s woes, with none of them boasting support of more than single figures in recent polls.
Feb 19, 2024
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
No comments:
Post a Comment