Photo/Illutration Former economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura during a Lower House plenary session on Feb. 15 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Five Lower House members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party intend to explain to the Diet chamber’s ethics panel about hundreds of millions of yen that went unreported within the party, sources said.

They include three former secretaries-general of the Abe faction, the largest in the party: former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno; former economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura; and Tsuyoshi Takagi, former chairman of the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee.

The two other lawmakers are Ryu Shionoya, a former education minister who heads the Abe faction’s 15-member executive board, and Ryota Takeda, secretary-general of the Nikai faction.

Yasukazu Hamada, chairman of the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee, told Jun Azumi, his counterpart at the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on Feb. 21 that Matsuno and Takagi will attend a session of the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics.

The LDP informed the CDP of the planned attendance of the three others the previous day.

Former accounting officials of the Abe, Nikai and Kishida factions as well as three Abe faction lawmakers who received large amounts of unreported funds from their faction have been charged in the scandal.

However, most recipients have faced no criminal responsibility, and questions remain over how the funds were used.

The opposition parties on Feb. 16 demanded attendance of all 51 LDP Lower House members who kept revenues from their factions’ fund-raising parties off the books.

The parties are placing particular emphasis on five senior Abe faction leaders, including Matsuno, Nishimura and Takagi, and former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, who heads the Nikai faction.

The two other senior Abe faction leaders are Koichi Hagiuda, former chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, and Hiroshige Seko, former secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus.

Matsuno served as secretary-general of the Abe faction from September 2019 to October 2021, when he was succeeded by Nishimura. Takagi took over the post in August 2022.

The statute of limitations has not expired for Political Fund Control Law violations committed over five years through 2022, such as falsifications of income and expenditure reports.

The CDP and three other opposition parties agreed on Feb. 21 to call for a session of the Upper House’s Deliberative Council on Political Ethics for 32 members of the upper chamber, including Yasumasa Ono, who left the LDP amid the scandal.

Seko, an Upper House member, told an associate he will attend a council session to “fulfill his responsibilities to explain,” sources said Feb. 21.

Separately, The Asahi Shimbun distributed a questionnaire to all 82 LDP Diet members who kept revenues from party ticket sales off the books. Twenty of the lawmakers had responded by 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 20.

In the questionnaire, Lower House members Seishiro Eto and Shuichi Takatori and Upper House member Shoji Nishida said they intend to appear before the council.

The three lawmakers all belong to the Abe faction.

Eto, a former Lower House vice speaker and the top adviser of the Abe faction, said a council session would offer a chance to clarify facts about the scandal.

It remains to be seen whether the LDP will let Eto, Takatori and Nishida apply for the convening of a council session.

The holding of such sessions requires either a request from a lawmaker facing certain allegations or a proposal from one-third or more of the council.

The opposition parties hold five seats on the upper chamber’s 15-member council but less than a third on the lower chamber’s 25-member council.

When a council session is convened by members’ proposal, a majority vote by council members in attendance is also necessary. A summons for attendance is not binding.

(This article was compiled from reports by Kenji Ozawa, Kohei Morioka and Yuta Ogi.)

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