Has the Liberal Democratic Party already forgotten the scandal over its ties with the Unification Church, which generated such a serious public distrust of politics?

The ruling party met for an annual convention on Feb. 26 but there was no mention of the topic.

In the convention, the party failed to show remorse over the fact that the Unification Church’s connection to LDP lawmakers and local assembly members gave a stamp of approval to the religious group’s activities.

That only leaves doubt as to whether the party will make good on its promise to sever all ties with the church in the future.

In a speech he gave as LDP president, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the party’s latest years at Japan’s helm, where it returned late in 2012 by ousting the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan, as a “decade of advancement.”

Kishida went on to emphasize a resolve to “take a new step forward” toward the next decade by working on a number of domestic and international issues, including reviving Japan’s economy, ensuring national security and stemming the falling fertility rate.

There is, however, one topic that totally eluded his convention speech: severing ties with the Unification Church.

The LDP’s deep-running links to the religious group, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, came to public light after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot in July.

There is no mention of the topic, either, in the party’s campaign policy that was adopted during the convention.

LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi said in his report on party affairs that the party has revised its governance code, which serves as guidelines for party management, to “clarify a policy for severing ties with organizations and groups whose activities are raising social adequacy concerns.”

Motegi, however, stopped short of naming the Unification Church.

All this appears to betray the LDP’s unspoken desire not to see the scandal brought up again and to have it forgotten.

The LDP in September released the results of checks on its lawmakers’ connection to the religious group, albeit in an insufficient form based on self-assessment. Local assembly members, however, were not covered by those checks.

A survey taken by The Asahi Shimbun last summer found that 290 prefectural assembly members, including 239 from the LDP, acknowledged their association with the Unification Church.

Many municipal assembly members also had ties to the church. More than a few local assembly members worked hard to have ordinances adopted for “supporting family education,” which the Unification Church has been campaigning for.

Kishida was asked in the Lower House Budget Committee session last week about the LDP’s stance on the church ties issue in the runup to the unified local elections in April.

The prime minister said that candidates running on the LDP ticket or being backed by the party are being called on to pledge, such as by submitting written oaths, that they will have no ties to the church.

As a basic premise for implementing those measures, however, the party should clarify past church ties by way of taking responsibility. The LDP should conduct a check of its local assembly members under the initiative of its national headquarters and publish the results ahead of the unified local elections.

The LDP’s campaign policy contains a passage saying that it will “seek to realize an inclusive society where diversity is respected.”

There was, however, no mention at all during the party convention of efforts to work out a bill to promote an understanding of LGBT people.

The LDP had decided, after one of Kishida’s executive secretaries was dismissed for making discriminatory remarks against sexual minorities, to resume internal discussions on the bill.

Kishida proudly said in his convention speech that the LDP is a “people’s party.”

If that is the case, the party will have to be flexible enough to address changes in people’s awareness and have them reflected in its policy measures.

The public has steadily come to show more understanding toward allowing married couples to have the option of using separate surnames and toward legalizing same-sex marriages.

The LDP will only move farther from its ideal self-image if it continues to prioritize the intentions of conservatives both within and outside the party and fall out of touch, as a consequence, with the desires of the majority of the people.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 27