Photo/Illutration Shigeru Ishiba, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, announces a snap election for Oct. 27 during a news conference at party headquarters on Sept. 30. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has, in principle, decided to approve election endorsements for ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers who were disciplined in the fund-raising scandal, sources said.

The new LDP leader plans to approve the endorsements based on applications from LDP prefectural chapters, allowing candidates in single-seat constituencies to also run on the proportional representation list, they said.

Ishiba has already announced that he will dissolve the Lower House on Oct. 9. Official campaigning will start on Oct. 15 and the election will be held on Oct. 27.

During the LDP leadership race, Ishiba had hinted at the possibility of withholding endorsements for politicians implicated in the scandal.

“The party must take responsibility for determining whether candidates are appropriate,” he said.

However, after becoming party president, he decided to hold the snap election on the earliest possible timeline, partly due to requests from junior coalition partner Komeito.

With limited time to field new candidates, the LDP under Ishiba’s leadership appears to have decided not to withhold endorsements of the scandal-hit lawmakers.

In April, the LDP punished 39 lawmakers for failing to list revenues from their factions’ fund-raising parties in their political fund reports.

Of them, 34 received lighter punishments than the fourth level on the party’s eight-tier disciplinary scale. A fourth-level penalty would mean losing party endorsement for the election.

There has been strong opposition within the LDP to reopening the endorsement issue.

However, the public remains critical of the LDP’s handling of the fund scandal.

In a telephone survey conducted by The Asahi Shimbun on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, 75 percent of respondents said the prime minister should push to clarify details of the scandal, while 15 percent said he does not need to.

In his inaugural news conference as prime minister on Oct. 1, Ishiba said, “The public has not been convinced.”

He also indicated he plans to meet with senior members of the Abe faction, which was at the center of the scandal, as early as Oct. 6.

“I would like to hear how we can ensure this does not happen again,” the prime minister said.

LDP executives also intend to endorse the scandal-hit lawmakers, allowing them to run in both single-seat constituencies and on the proportional representation list, the sources said.

The candidates will be required to submit a written pledge to prevent a recurrence.

The opposition camp, led by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is considering unifying candidates in the electoral districts of the LDP members tied to the funding scandal.

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