A key focus during a plenary session of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers from both chambers of parliament set for next Tuesday will be on whether the party’s secretary-general, Hiroshi Moriyama, will resign.
Speculation has risen after he said, “I’ll clarify how I am responsible” after the party releases an internal report on why it performed poorly in the July Upper House election. The report is set to be released at the session.
The meeting will also likely see a clash between those for and against Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba staying in power, with lawmakers planning to use the session to evaluate the party’s campaign promises, public relations strategy and the impact of the faction slush funds scandal.
A meeting of an ad-hoc committee established to assess the debacle in the recent Upper House election went on for over an hour Friday. After the meeting, Moriyama said the committee has drafted an initial report they will share at Tuesday’s session. Seiji Kihara, who chairs the LDP's Election Strategy Committee, told reporters that the party’s presidential election committee was not mentioned during Friday’s meeting.
With Ishiba clinging to his post, citing his responsibility to oversee the implementation of Tokyo’s trade deal with Washington, some LDP lawmakers want to see Moriyama take the fall instead.
“The LDP lost twice, in the Lower House and Upper House, so if the prime minister is staying on for ongoing Japan-U.S. tariff talks, the secretary-general should take full responsibility,” said former digital minister Taro Kono on a July 27 program by broadcaster FNN. “As an organization, we need to draw the line.”
It is customary for the secretary-general, who is responsible for endorsing candidates and allocating campaign funds, to leave office after an election drubbing.
Moriyama, however, is still the party’s second-in-command, even after the ruling LDP-Komeito coalition lost its majority in the Upper House election and the October Lower House election.
Moriyama is one of the party's most powerful and trusted behind-the-scenes figures, unlike Ishiba, who is wildly unpopular among his peers.
The veteran politician has made a name for himself, not for touting his prime ministerial ambitions — he is believed to have none — but for his ability to listen to competing lawmakers within the LDP to clinch deals acceptable to the party as a whole.
Moriyama announced on Aug. 4 that he would resign from his post as chair of the LDP’s Kagoshima Prefectural Chapter to take responsibility for the electoral district's losses in the Upper House election, but the chapter’s members talked him out of it on Aug. 20, insisting that the “highly experienced Moriyama stay on once again in these difficult times,” the chapter’s secretary-general, Takeshi Fujisaki, told reporters.
Ishiba, who is also LDP president, also needs him to contain the party’s anti-Ishiba camp and cooperate with opposition parties to pass legislation in parliament.
In addition to his ability to keep the LDP operating harmoniously, Moriyama was Ishiba’s top pick for secretary-general because he was the party’s parliamentary affairs chief for roughly four years and two months — the longest anyone has served in the position.
This gave Moriyama a network with opposition parties that he then used to court enough votes to pass legislation in the Lower House.
It was Moriyama’s intervention in rocky negotiations with the Democratic Party for the People and Nippon Ishin no Kai that helped pass the supplementary budget for fiscal 2024 in December and the budget for fiscal 2025 in March.
Since the ruling coalition lost its majority in the Upper House election, Moriyama has met with Nippon Ishin’s secretary-general, Hiroshi Nakatsuka, and parliamentary affairs chief Takashi Endo to discuss cooperation in the upcoming fall session of parliament.
However, with pressure mounting over a possible LDP presidential election, Moriyama may have little choice but to relinquish his post if over half of the party’s sitting parliamentarians and prefectural chapters push for a race.
Upper House lawmaker Shigeharu Aoyama said on his YouTube channel on Aug. 6 that, should Moriyama step down, farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi would be his most likely replacement.
“Even if Koizumi’s time as secretary-general would end after three days, even if it was as Ishiba’s ‘punching-bag,’ it would boost his prestige,” Aoyama said.
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