Fifteen months since irregularities in her election campaign came to light, Anri Kawai finally resigned from the Upper House on Feb. 3 without offering a sincere explanation to the public about the serious allegations against her.

Kawai’s belated resignation came after it became almost certain that her conviction on a vote-buying charge would invalidate her election and she would lose her job.

Her statement saying she had to take “political responsibility” for failing to clear her name in the trial rang hollow.

She bears a heavy responsibility for damaging public trust in politics. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which supported her election campaign with unusual zeal, should also be held severely responsible for her offense.

The Tokyo District Court on Jan. 21 found Kawai guilty of violating the Public Offices Election Law by bribing local politicians for votes in the 2019 Upper House election. She said she will not appeal the ruling, which means the guilty verdict will be finalized.

Her husband, former Justice Minister and Lower House member Katsuyuki Kawai, is also facing a trial in the case. He is accused of handing out about 29 million yen ($276,000) in total to 100 local voters, including Hiroshima prefectural assembly members, local lawmakers and mayors, campaign staffers and supporters.

Anri Kawai was accused of illegally distributing 1.6 million yen to four of them in conspiracy with her husband. She was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for five years.

After tendering her resignation on Feb. 3, she issued a brief, one-page statement but did not bother to answer questions at a news conference or other possible occasions.

While she cited her husband’s trial as a pretext for her silence, she should be criticized for abdicating her responsibility to explain her unlawful actions.

Anri Kawai was selected as one of the two LDP candidates for a Hiroshima constituency thanks to strong support from then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who later succeeded Abe as prime minister.

LDP headquarters provided 150 million yen for Kawai’s campaign, 10 times the amount given to the other party candidate, an incumbent who failed to be re-elected.

Neither the LDP nor the Kawais have disclosed how the money was used, saying that related documents have been confiscated.

Given that much of the money came from tax-financed state subsidies provided to the LDP, their refusal to disclose the information is totally unacceptable.

LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai issued a brief statement that said Kawai had “made her own decision to take responsibility.” But his comment sounds as if the party had nothing to do with the matter.

Although the Kawais have already left the party, they committed the alleged crimes that betrayed their political ethics while they were LDP members.

The LDP should conduct its own investigation into the allegations against the Kawais and hold them accountable for what they did.

The vote-buying scandal is only one sign of ethical erosion within the ruling camp. Former farm minister Takamori Yoshikawa, who resigned from the Diet late last year citing poor health, has been indicted on a bribery charge.

Early this week, Kiyohiko Toyama, a senior member of the LDP’s junior coalition partner, Komeito, stepped down from the Diet after coming under fire for visiting a club in Tokyo’s Ginza district late at night during the state of emergency.

Three ruling coalition lawmakers have given up their jobs in only one and a half months. This is an extremely unusual string of resignations for the ruling camp.

Collectively referring to lawmakers as the “elected elite” has long been out of fashion. Still, the decline in political integrity among Diet members is distressing to see.

Many questions remain unanswered about the Tokyo hotel banquets held for Abe’s supporters from his electoral district on the eve of annual cherry blossom-viewing parties hosted by the prime minister, even though Abe has admitted to making false remarks in the Diet about the issue.

Abe has refused opposition parties’ request for the submission of the detailed expense accounts or receipts issued by the hotel.

Suga has continued trying to protect Abe’s political skin by claiming the former prime minister has already explained the matter.

Suga’s attitude will do nothing but further undermine public trust in the ruling alliance.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 4