Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida responds to a question at the Lower House Deliberative Council on Political Ethics on Feb. 29. (Pool)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and ruling party lawmaker Ryota Takeda frustrated opposition party members by adding nothing new about a funding scandal taken up by the Lower House Deliberative Council on Political Ethics.

Kishida on Feb. 29 became the first sitting prime minister to appear before the panel, which is investigating the large amounts of unreported money collected by factions of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Kishida only repeated what was compiled in a report by an LDP committee that questioned lawmakers about the accumulation of money from faction fund-raisers and the failure to list the amounts in political fund reports.

“If you are only going to talk about what is in the report, why are you even here to explain yourself?” a clearly frustrated Keiji Kokuta of the Japanese Communist Party said to the prime minister.

Kishida was asked if he would give instructions in the LDP for a further investigation into how the practice started and how the money was collected. He replied that it is a matter that should be explained from the factions and their members who were involved.

Ryota Takeda also appeared before the panel on Feb. 29 as the representative of the faction led by Toshihiro Nikai, a former LDP secretary-general.

Takeda repeatedly said that both he and Nikai had no knowledge of the amounts collected by the faction, even though Takeda served as faction secretary-general. In that position, Takeda should have overseen all matters related to the faction’s workings.

He said such matters were all left up to the faction staff member who worked under him handling accounting.

Related News