Yoshitaka Ikeda became the first lawmaker arrested in the latest political fundraising scandal involving the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, further blurring Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's political fate.
Kishida, whose popularity has already sunk to its lowest level since taking office in October 2021, will try to restore the public's trust in politics by setting up a "political reform" panel, which he will lead, within the LDP in the not-so-distant future.
He has also expressed an eagerness to deepen discussions to revise the political funds control law, which has often been criticized for containing loopholes that enabled lawmakers to generate slush funds that might have been used for election campaign activities, including vote-buying.