In search for top officials, Kishida constrained by funds scandal

Fumio Kishida has attempted to draw a line under a political funds scandal by replacing Liberal Democratic Party executives and Cabinet ministers, but the limited number of viable candidates not suspected of misconduct means the new appointees look more likely to be stopgap replacements.

Some initial candidates had even turned down Kishida's offer of a post to avoid exposing themselves to significant political risk for the benefit of the prime minister.

Kisaburo Tokai, who served as education minister in 2007 under Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, replaced Koichi Hagiuda as LDP policy chief, while former Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada became the party’s parliamentary affairs chief, replacing Tsuyoshi Takagi. Neither Tokai nor Hamada belong to a party faction, while both Hagiuda and Takagi are members of the party’s largest faction, which used to be headed by late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Tokai, 75, is a relatively low-key lawmaker first elected in his father's Lower House electoral district in 1986. He left the LDP to join New Party Sakigake in 1993, only to return to the LDP in 1999.

"To regain trust, it's important to draft solid policies" as head of the party's policy panel, Tokai told reporters after an LDP meeting in Tokyo on Friday.

He touched on the need to update the party's political reform guidelines, which were drafted more than three decades ago following a bribery case involving former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and what was then the U.S. aircraft-maker Lockheed.

Hamada — who was first elected to the Lower House in 1993, the same year as Kishida — has twice served as defense minister. He was also the LDP’s parliamentary affairs chief in 2012 when the party was out of power.

When Kishida replaced Hirokazu Matsuno, his right-hand man, as chief cabinet secretary last week, two or three candidates reportedly turned down the chance to take the role before former Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi accepted the post.

All those replaced are members of the Abe faction. The faction is suspected of underreporting sales of fundraising event tickets and giving the money to its members as kickbacks totaling ¥500 million over the five years through 2022.

Fundraising events and kickbacks from them are legal, but failing to report them properly is a violation of the political funds law.

As Tokyo prosecutors ramp up their investigation, it is becoming clearer that the entire operation was systematic, with senior faction executives aware of the situation.

In the latest findings, an Abe faction executive overseeing its business operations had allegedly been reporting details of the unreported ticket sales and kickbacks to the head of the faction at the time.

Matsuno, Takagi and former trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura — who have all been replaced amid the scandal — held the faction’s executive post overseeing its operations during the past five years. During that time, Abe and late former Lower House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda were faction heads.