Photo/Illutration Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi, right, attends a news conference in October 2023 while Yuko Obuchi, the LDP Election Strategy Committee chair, looks on. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Key lawmakers are bolting one of the two factions left standing in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the wake of a scandal over unreported political funds.

Yuko Obuchi, chair of the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee, started the exodus from the faction led by LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi on Jan. 25.

Although the Motegi faction has not been investigated in the funding scandal, Obuchi abided by discussions within an LDP political reform task force that called on party executives to leave their factions.

Obuchi’ father, Keizo, a prime minister who died in office in 2000, once led the same faction.

Also on Jan. 25, Upper House member Kazuhiko Aoki said he was leaving the Motegi faction.

His father, Mikio, was often referred to as the “don” of the LDP Upper House caucus and wielded enormous influence over party and Diet matters. He was chief Cabinet secretary in the Obuchi Cabinet.

On Jan. 26, three leading officials of the LDP Upper House caucus indicated they were leaving the Motegi faction while still in the caucus posts.

The three are: Masakazu Sekiguchi, the LDP Upper House caucus chairman; Junichi Ishii, the LDP Upper House caucus Diet Affairs Committee chair; and Takamaro Fukuoka, the LDP Upper House caucus policy chief.

After prosecutors indicted some lawmakers and officials on charges of violating the Political Fund Control Law in the scandal, the LDP factions once led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as well as the one headed by Toshihiro Nikai, a former LDP secretary-general, decided to disband last week.

On Jan. 25, a minor faction led by Hiroshi Moriyama, the LDP General Council chair, also decided to dissolve. Like the Motegi faction, the Moriyama faction was not subject to the investigation by prosecutors.

The only other faction remaining in the LDP is led by party Vice President Taro Aso.

On Jan. 25, the LDP General Council approved the interim report compiled by the political reform task force.

The report called for the disbanding of factions and cited a need to tighten the Political Fund Control Law to prevent a repeat of the scandal. However, no specific details were included, and no deadline was set for the final report.

(This article was compiled from reports by Yoshitaka Isobe, Seiko Tago, Yuta Ogi and Naoki Matsuyama.)

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