Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida enters the prime minister’s office on Dec. 11. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to expand his purge of Abe faction members over the slush fund scandal to cover the three highest levels of his administration, a senior government official said.

Asked by reporters about such a prospect, Kishida on Dec. 11 said, “I want to figure out the right response at the right timing.”

According to the senior official, Kishida intends to replace all 15 Abe faction members who are Cabinet members, vice ministers or parliamentary secretaries.

The Abe faction, the largest in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is being investigated by Tokyo prosecutors over its suspected failure to report income and expenditures in its political fund reports.

Faction members who exceeded their ticket sales quotas for fund-raising parties contributed the extra money to the slush fund, and they later received “kickbacks” from the slush fund, sources said, adding that the money was not listed in their fund reports.

Kishida has already decided to oust Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura from the Cabinet, sources said. Both are influential Abe faction members who are suspected of receiving kickbacks from the slush fund.

Two other Abe faction members hold Cabinet positions: Junji Suzuki, the internal affairs minister; and Ichiro Miyashita, the agriculture minister.

Suzuki and Miyashita have denied receiving kickbacks, but Kishida is expected to replace the two nonetheless, according to the sources.

Although no arrests have been made in the scandal, one of the Cabinet members of the Abe faction said, “I think (Kishida) has already concluded that the Abe faction was systematically creating slush funds.”

But Kishida won’t stop at his Cabinet, the senior government official said.

Currently in the Kishida administration, five vice ministers and six parliamentary secretaries belong to the faction once headed by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Kishida plans to remove all of them, the official said.

“I take seriously and have a sense of crisis about growing public suspicions regarding the political funds of the LDP’s factions,” Kishida said. “I will assess the situation and consider an appropriate response at the right time to restore public confidence and avoid causing delays in national politics.”

He is expected to hold a news conference on Dec. 13, the day the extraordinary Diet session ends, to explain his response to the scandal.

Kishida, who is also LDP president, also plans to remove Abe faction leaders from the party’s executive lineup.

He intends to replace Koichi Hagiuda, chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, and Tsuyoshi Takagi, chairman of the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee, and is considering dumping Hiroshige Seko, secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus, the sources said.

Matsuno, Nishimura, Hagiuda, Takagi and Seko are known as the faction’s “Goninshu,” or “five leaders of tomorrow.”

Bumping them from their posts could spark a backlash against Kishida from the Abe faction.

The Asahi Shimbun on Dec. 10 reported new allegations that three Diet members who belong to the Abe faction received about 40 million to 50 million yen in kickbacks.

The faction is formally called Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai, but members continue to use the Abe name even after his assassination in July 2022.

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