Photo/Illutration Ryu Shionoya, head of the Abe faction’s executive board (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party punished 39 lawmakers, including senior Abe faction leaders, over a political fund scandal that has dealt a serious blow to the party and the Kishida administration.

The disciplinary measures were decided at a meeting of the Party Ethics Committee on April 4.

The LDP urged Ryu Shionoya, who heads the Abe faction’s 15-member executive board, and Hiroshige Seko, former secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus, to leave the party.

That was the strictest punishment against any of the lawmakers and the second harshest, after expulsion, among the LDP’s eight disciplinary measures.

Of the 39 lawmakers, 31 submitted statements to the party to express their opinions before the disciplinary measures were formalized.

According to sources, Shionoya said in his statement: “I am dissatisfied because it is a heavy punishment that cannot be justified. I firmly protest the party executives’ dictatorial party management.”

He said some Abe faction members were being strictly punished “like scapegoats” without concrete standards or evidence of punishable misconduct being clearly presented.

Hakubun Shimomura and Yasutoshi Nishimura, former secretaries-general of the Abe faction, will have their LDP membership suspended for one year.

The party will also suspend the membership of Tsuyoshi Takagi, the current faction secretary-general, for six months.

Suspension of party membership is the third harshest among the eight disciplinary measures.

Thirty-six lawmakers of the Abe and Nikai factions were punished for failing to list 5 million yen ($33,000) or more in revenues from their faction’s fund-raising parties on their political fund reports over the five years through 2022.

Shionoya, Shimomura and Nishimura were penalized for jeopardizing public trust in politics, although their underreported amount was less than 5 million yen.

For years, the Abe and Nikai factions funneled party ticket sales that exceeded individual lawmakers’ sales quotas back to those Diet members.

The LDP said 82 incumbent lawmakers and the managers of three LDP branches failed to report the refunds over the five years.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is LDP president, and other party executives said Shionoya, Seko, Shimomura and Nishimura warrant severe punishments because they could have stopped the Abe faction’s practice of distributing proceeds from the ticket sales.

In April 2022, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who headed the eponymous faction, told the four lawmakers, who were leaders of the faction, to end the practice.

But the faction decided to continue the practice after the four held talks at a meeting in August that year, a month after Abe was shot to death.

Hirokazu Matsuno, a former secretary-general of the Abe faction, and Koichi Hagiuda, a senior leader of the faction, will be barred from holding party posts for one year, the sixth-harshest disciplinary measure.

Hagiuda failed to report 27.28 million yen in fund-raising party revenues over the five years, the second-largest amount among the 39 lawmakers.

Ryota Takeda, secretary-general of the Nikai faction, will also be barred from assuming party posts for one year.

In his statement, Shionoya said Kishida’s moral and political responsibility should be called into question.

Kishida was not punished even though a former accounting official of the faction that he headed until early December received a summary indictment for failing to report fund-raising party revenues in January.

Faction leader Toshihiro Nikai, a former party secretary-general, also escaped punishment after he said he will not seek re-election in the next Lower House election.

His aide was charged over the failure of Nikai’s fund management organization to report 35.26 million yen over the five years, the largest amount among the 82 incumbent lawmakers who kept fund-raising party revenues off the books.

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