Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Sunday renewed his pledge to promote reforms of the party following a high-profile money scandal involving LDP factions.
"In order for the party to be reborn and achieve the revitalization of Japan, we will firmly advance reforms while accepting harsh opinions," Motegi told a regional roundtable dialogue session on political reform held in Nagoya in response to the scandal.
The dialogue sessions are intended for senior LDP officials to hear the voices of members of the party's local branches across Japan. Sunday's session was attended by Hideki Niwa, a House of Representatives lawmaker who heads the LDP Aichi prefectural chapter, and other senior officials of the chapter.
On punishments against scandal-tainted LDP lawmakers, which were announced on Thursday, Motegi said: "The political and moral responsibility is grave. The party takes the problem seriously and I want related lawmakers to work hard so that something like this will never happen again."