Focus turns to replacements as scandal-hit LDP ministers face ax

As the fallout from the Liberal Democratic Party's political funds scandal continues to spread, all discussion in Japan's political world is centered on who Fumio Kishida will turn to after the expected exits of four key ministers, including his right-hand man.

The Cabinet ministers and party executives that are expected to be replaced, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, are members of an LDP faction that was led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before his assassination. They allegedly received tens of millions of yen in kickbacks from fundraising party ticket sales that were not reported as political funds.

In a news conference Wednesday evening, Kishida said he would make replacements the following day but declined to comment on the details.

"I will fight at the forefront to change the party culture anew. That is my mission," Kishida said. But he did not respond to questions on what he would do if more ministers are implicated in the scandal.

LDP policy chief Koichi Hagiuda, LDP Upper House Secretary-General Hiroshige Seko and LDP parliamentary affairs chief Tsuyoshi Takagi are expected to tender their resignations on Thursday before Kishida replaces them.

It is anticipated that Kishida will also replace Matsuno, trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, internal affairs minister Junji Suzuki and farm minister Ichiro Miyashita, along with five deputy ministers. As for six parliamentary vice ministers who are lower-ranking members in the Abe faction, Kishida will apparently hear them out first before deciding what to do.

Kishida appears to be having difficulty finding a replacement for Matsuno, with there being few veteran lawmakers who are not Abe faction members. Names that have been floated include former Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

As the LDP's largest faction, with 99 lawmakers, the absence of the Abe caucus in government and on the LDP executive is expected to have a major impact on the nation's political power dynamics even as the consequences remain unclear.

Meanwhile, there are concerns that further investigation will implicate more ministers and party executives in the scandal, leading to a series of replacements.

The Abe faction is now said to have offered ¥500 million in kickbacks over the past five years — far more than the initial report of ¥100 million.

LDP lawmaker Yoshitaka Ikeda admitted Wednesday that he failed to report about ¥32 million in political funds between 2020 and 2022 and revised his political funds report accordingly, becoming the first lawmaker to do so.

In explaining the reason why the funds were not reported, Ikeda’s office said in a statement that it received the money from the faction as “policy activities funds.”

But Ikeda decided it should be reported as a donation, apologizing for damaging the public’s trust in politics, it said.

Other prominent names suspected of underreporting funds, including former Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto, have dodged questions from reporters, claiming they were still looking into what happened.

Tokyo prosecutors are expected to start questioning lawmakers who received unreported kickbacks after parliament wraps up its latest session on Wednesday.

“It’s like the calm before the storm” for prosecutors, a source close to the investigators said.

Opposition parties, meanwhile, have ramped up their attacks on Kishida over the political funds scandal, on Wednesday submitting a no-confidence motion in the Lower House, which was voted down later in the day.

A no-confidence motion against Matsuno was voted down Tuesday, prompting opposition parties to criticize the ruling coalition for offering him support even though he was expected to be replaced Thursday.