Photo/Illutration Clockwise from top center: Hirokazu Matsuno, Yasutoshi Nishimura, Tsuyoshi Takagi, Koichi Hagiuda and Hiroshige Seko, known as “goninshu” (five future leaders) of the Abe faction (Asahi Shimbun file photos)

In times of turbulence such as war and pestilence, many tend to take an interest in Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527).

He wrote “The Prince,” his best-known treatise, to promote himself to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic. The work has endured and generations of people have continued to turn to it during times of crisis.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is in serious trouble over its political slush fund scandal, and I decided to reread “The Prince.”

“And here let it be noted that a prince should be careful never to join with one stronger than himself in attacking others,” Machiavelli wrote.

And here is another observation: “The choice of servants is very important to a prince."

Here, the face of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida popped into my head. His power base in the LDP is not strong, but he has maintained the stability of his administration by relying on the Abe faction, the party’s largest “habatsu” faction once headed by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Did Kishida make the right choice?

At an Abe faction party this past spring, Kishida mentioned several names, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and Koichi Hagiuda, chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, as forming the “backbone of the Kishida administration.”

There are 15 Abe faction members who are Cabinet members, vice ministers or parliamentary secretaries. The Kishida administration’s backbone is beginning to crumble.

Perhaps the faction has created members with swollen heads. Yaichi Tanigawa, a Lower House legislator who is under suspicion of pocketing more than 40 million yen ($274,355) in kickbacks from the faction’s slush fund, read out a prepared statement to the media on Dec. 10.

And when reporters followed up with questions, he rudely told them, “You must be dim-witted. I’ve already said that I’m not saying another word.”

Not all lawmakers who have come under suspicion are Abe faction members, which means the entire LDP has been tainted by the scandal. Kishida has stated he will “deal with it appropriately at an appropriate time.”

But I doubt he really understands how little the public can relate to the ways of LDP factions, what with their fund-raising party ticket sales and kickbacks to the tune of hundreds of millions of yen.

Machiavelli preached the need to choose a wise man and heed his advice. But he also wrote that a prince must ultimately make his own decisions all by himself and in his own way.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 12

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.