Financial misreporting on the part of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s five factions should not be simply dismissed as “clerical errors,” given the sums involved and their recurrence almost every year.

Without question, the misstatements seriously undermine the spirit of the Political Funds Control Law, which is designed to make the flow of political funds transparent. Doubts and questions remain, and it is unacceptable to simply correct the political funding reports and consider the matter closed.

The issue revolves around political fundraising parties held by the five LDP factions. The law mandates that the names and amounts of party ticket purchases exceeding 200,000 yen each must be specified in the reports. After omissions were pointed out, the factions corrected their reports in haste.

The accounting discrepancies came to light when it was discovered that the expenditures recorded on the side of the political organizations that purchased the tickets did not match corresponding income records on the faction side.

Unrecorded amounts from 2018 to 2021 total about 40 million yen. A criminal complaint has been filed against accounting and other officials of the five factions, accusing them of breaching the Political Fund Control Law through nondisclosure and false entry. In response, the Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office is questioning the officials in charge on a voluntary basis.

At the behest of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, each faction explained the corrections to the media on Nov. 22. They claimed the errors stemmed from a failure to consolidate the amounts when the same group purchased tickets through multiple routes. The data matching and consolidation process is known as “nayose” in Japan. This lack of basic oversight cast doubt on the factions’ seriousness toward funds reporting.

They denied trying to create slush funds by pointing out that the total income remains unchanged. On this occasion, since the ticket purchasers were political organizations, inconsistencies were revealed as the financial reports of the organizations were checked against the faction’s documents.

However, when companies or individuals purchase tickets, records are not kept for long. The factions have pledged to prevent future errors by matching the names of ticket purchasers and their payments across different accounts to ensure that records are consistent and accurate. But their promise will be meaningless unless the steps they pledged are thoroughly implemented. That will require keeping accurate records concerning corporations and individuals.

Initially, Kishida explained the actions taken by the faction he heads. But when it came to other factions, he remained detached, stating, “Each should fulfill their responsibility to explain (the facts).”

Only after the matter started affecting Diet deliberations did he instruct LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi to ensure swift that each faction offers a thorough explanation. This shows the prime minister’s inability to grasp the seriousness of the issue.

The LDP was once described as a “federation of factions.” Even though their political clout has diminished on the back of political reforms that sharply enhanced the power of the party executive team, factions still support the party’s core functions, including personnel appointments and information sharing. This isn’t just an issue that can be dismissed as pertaining to political organizations separate from the party.

Furthermore, factions were once seen as hotbeds of money-driven corruption, giving rise to a string of political scandals, including the Recruit shares-for-favor scandal and the Sagawa Kyubin pay-off scandal, fueling public anger and distrust.

This led to the collapse of the so-called 1955 System--the bipolar political landscape marked by the LDP’s dominance and uninterrupted rule along with the perennial main opposition Japan Socialist Party--and the LDP’s fall from power. The ruling party underestimates the political risk involved in allegations surrounding factional finances at its own peril.

As the president of the LDP, Kishida has the responsibility to clarify all the relevant facts and explain them to the public.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 25