Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba found himself increasingly between a rock and a hard place over whether to endorse Liberal Democratic Party members implicated in a recent slush funds scandal in the Oct. 27 general election as he faced off against opposition leaders in parliament Monday.
Questions from Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda on where Ishiba and the ruling party would draw the line with scandal-tainted members intending to run for Lower House seats drew only vague replies.
“At this point, we have not yet confirmed who will be certified,” Ishiba said.
Withholding endorsement from LDP members implicated in the scandal, which emerged at the end of last year, may appease voters. But it will also likely anger members of a now-defunct faction previously led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that was at the center of the scandal. That could create problems for the party during campaigning, which kicks off on Oct. 15.
At the moment, six LDP lawmakers reportedly will not receive formal party endorsement. They are:
- former party policy chief Koichi Hagiuda
- former education minister Hakubun Shimomura
- former trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura
- former party parliamentary affairs chief Tsuyoshi Takagi
- former Cabinet Office state minister Hiromi Mitsubayashi
- former reconstruction minister Katsuei Hirasawa
Except for Hirasawa, who belonged to a faction led by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, all of the others were members of the Abe faction, which was the biggest in the party until its dissolution.
Another 43 LDP members caught up in the scandal, most of whom also belonged to the Abe faction, can still contest district seats in the election with party support. But if they lose, they will be excluded from gaining entry into the Lower House through proportional representation, according to media reports.
Noda also pointed to reports that a faction previously led by Ishiba himself had unreported ¥800,000 worth of income.
Ishiba replied that this was a clerical error that has already been taken care of.
The prime minister made no promises to reopen investigations into the political funds scandal, saying only that the LDP would make its own decisions on how to restore trust.
“The (Ishiba) faction has already been dissolved and we’ve taken the necessary steps to correct past income and expenditure reports,” he said.
On the diplomatic front, Ishiba backtracked on his earlier proposals for an Asian version of NATO to be set up and addressing the imbalances in Tokyo's alliance with Washington to give Japan more equal footing.
He said his opinions had been expressed to the Hudson Institute think tank in his capacity as a member of parliament before becoming prime minister, and that, as the leader of the country now, it was necessary for him to first tackle other pressing diplomatic and security issues.
“The prime minister’s comments about an Asian version of NATO and a revision of the U.S.-Japan security treaty are abrupt remarks that could disrupt the alliance. Aren’t they unrealistic?” Noda asked.
Ishiba insisted those ideas were his own proposals, and do not constitute his administration’s policy.
“I’ve repeatedly expressed my own personal views as a Diet member regarding the nature of Japan’s security, including on an Asian NATO. But I don’t expect this will happen overnight,” he said.
“We’ll strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the alliance,” he added.
In addition to the CDP, other opposition leaders, including those from Nippon Ishin no Kai, the Japanese Communist Party and the Democratic Party for the People questioned Ishiba Monday. He will face more questioning from the opposition in the Upper House on Tuesday.
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