Photo/Illutration Ryu Shionoya speaks at a Jan. 19 meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Yuki Shibata)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s decision to disband the party faction he once headed triggered a chain reaction that could further undermine his hold on government.

Kishida stepped down as faction head in December after reports surfaced of huge sums of unreported money collected by factions in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party through fund-raising parties.

On Jan. 18, he told reporters he was considering dissolving the LDP faction he once led. Not long after, Kishida’s mobile phone buzzed. The call was from Taro Aso, the LDP vice president who also heads his own party faction.

“I will not end my faction,” Aso bluntly told Kishida after the prime minister explained what he was doing to save his political skin.

The scandal has already claimed the scalps of several politicians.

Aso ended the call after informing Kishida that Toshimitsu Motegi, the LDP secretary-general, also had no plan to dissolve his faction.

As the respective heads of the second and third largest factions in the LDP, Aso and Motegi had provided Kishida with the backing he needed to run government affairs smoothly. The faction that bears Kishida’s name is the party’s fourth largest.

After talking with Kishida, Aso called Motegi to ask if he was aware of Kishida’s decision to disband his faction. Motegi said that was news to him.

Aso told Motegi they would be at the forefront of criticism if they maintained their factions.

On Jan. 19, Kishida formally announced he was disbanding his faction. Not long after, Toshihiro Nikai, the former LDP secretary-general, informed a faction meeting that the group would be disbanded.

Later on Jan. 19, the faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a meeting where it was agreed to dissolve the faction, the largest in the LDP.

Despite its size, the Abe faction had been effectively rudderless since Abe was gunned down while campaigning for an election in July 2022. More than a year went by before the decision was made to have, in effect, a collective leadership to head the faction. The Jan. 19 meeting was the first held in about six weeks.

Dissolving the Abe faction may bring down the curtain on the scandal without further explanation about why the faction had to accumulate close to 680 million yen ($4.6 million) in unreported money from fund-raising parties and return it to faction members. Both the faction and faction members did not report the latter transfers of money.

Moreover, the Abe faction is so far the only one to have lawmakers either arrested or indicted on suspicion of violating the Political Fund Control Law.

After the fund-raising party scandal emerged, Kishida set up a new body within the LDP to discuss political reform.

That organ is expected to compile an interim report with its proposals in the coming week.

Both Aso and Motegi said they would look over the contents of that report and discuss with faction members what path to take in the future.

Kishida already had record low ratings in public opinion polls before the scandal emerged.

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