Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is on the brink of losing the political power to maintain his administration.
Simply purging members of the Abe faction, the largest faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party embroiled in an ever-expanding slush fund scandal, is not enough for his political survival.
He should realize that regaining public trust will be virtually impossible without breaking the evils of faction politics and fundamentally enhancing the transparency of political funding.
Kishida has decided to replace 15 Abe faction members from their posts in his administration, including Cabinet ministers, vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries.
As allegations have emerged that Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno received slush fund of 10 million yen ($68,650) through fund-raising parties, the top government spokesman is now deemed certain to be dismissed.
However, the scope of allegations has expanded to implicate all executives of the faction, the so-called “Group of Five” heavyweights including Matsuno, and other members of the faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Kishida apparently has concluded that the entire Abe faction must be cut off from his administration to contain the political crisis.
There are four ministers, five vice ministers and six parliamentary secretaries from the Abe faction in the Kishida administration.
It is an extraordinary situation that so many lawmakers appointed to senior government posts will be replaced at once, outside of normal Cabinet formation or reshuffling. Kishida bears heavy responsibility for this political snafu as the person who appointed them.
One big question is whether Kishida truly believes that the problem is limited to the Abe faction. Criminal complaints have been filed against five LDP factions, including the Abe group, for unreported earnings and false statements in political funding reports related to fund-raising parties.
There are rumors that other factions also provided kickbacks to members who sold more party tickets than the sales quotas assigned to them.
When he asked each faction to refrain from holding parties for the time being, Kishida recognized this matter to be a problem for the “entire party.”
If he really holds this view, the next logical step for him is to order all factions to report all the relevant facts about their funding flows immediately and consider new appointments based on the information.
The massive reshuffle would be meaningless unless Kishida can overcome the dynamics of faction politics and make the true “right person in the right place” personnel decisions.
These selections would be unaffected by factors such as the need to maintain a balance among factions or the tradition of personnel selection by pecking order based on the number of times candidates have been elected.
The Abe faction’s operations to create slush fund from fund-raising parties involve a broad array of members ranging from young lawmakers to bigwigs.
This suggests that the faction as a whole was regularly and systematically engaged in building up and keeping the secret.
Since 2000, the powerful faction produced four prime ministers–Yoshiro Mori, Junichiro Koizumi, Yasuo Fukuda and Shinzo Abe, who held the top post twice.
The second Abe administration, in particular, lasted for seven years and eight months and wielded dominating power as an unchallengeable political force.
It is hard not to believe that the group’s political might has bred widespread arrogance and ethical slackness among members, creating an environment that fostered corruption.
Kishida, who, as head of the fourth-largest faction, has to operate from a rather fragile power base, has made a point of not displeasing the Abe faction in both personnel and policy decisions since the beginning of his administration.
When making important political decisions, he obediently sought advice from Abe, and even after his death, he relied heavily on the power of the faction supported by its size.
Kishida is often described as a leader without any clear policy agenda or ambitions.
If he fails to exercise strong leadership and break free from the yoke of the past through personnel appointments to weaken the Abe faction’s influence, his already low popularity will further wane.
–The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 12
