Opposition parties attacked Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on March 14 after he apologized for giving gift certificates to 15 newly elected Lower House members but insisted he broke no law.

Speaking with reporters as he was heading to his office, Ishiba said, “I express my deepest apology for causing trouble and worries to many people.”

However, he insisted the 100,000 yen ($670) in gift certificates that members of his office gave to the 15 lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party did not violate the Political Fund Control Law.

The law prohibits individuals from giving donations, including cash or gift certificates, directly to Diet members.

“I handed out the (gift certificates) purchased from my own pocket money as an expression of my recognition of what they (the lawmakers) went through,” Ishiba said. “None of those who received them are from my electoral district, so there was no violation.”

Yoshihiko Noda, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, was not convinced.

“The donations can only be considered as going toward political activity,” Noda told reporters on March 14. “The amount was also too large to be a gift. The problem is that such a culture exists in the LDP.”

The opposition bloc appears set to delay passage of the fiscal 2025 budget through the Upper House over the matter.

Even Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, was critical of Ishiba.

Komeito chief Tetsuo Saito told reporters on March 14 that the amount of the gift certificates was greatly detached from general public sentiment.

“The only thing he can do is to regain public trust by dealing seriously with the various issues facing the government and fulfilling his responsibility to explain” his action, Saito said.

Shigeharu Aoyama, an LDP Upper House member, said: “There are suspicions that a law was broken. (Ishiba) must make a decision, including about his own future.”

The Asahi Shimbun on the evening of March 13 broke the story about gift certificates being distributed to the 15 lawmakers at a March 3 gathering.

Members of Ishiba’s office declined to comment because the gathering was a “private matter.”

But Ishiba appeared at a hastily called news conference late on March 13 and said the certificates were intended as a “gift” to those who attended a dinner at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence on March 3.

In fact, he said, the gifts were meant for family members of the lawmakers as an expression of his appreciation.

Ishiba stressed that the gift certificates were unrelated to any political activity and were based on his own difficult experiences in winning his first Lower House term.

He said he wanted to thank the first-termers for a job well done in the October Lower House election, when the LDP-Komeito coalition lost its majority.

Those who received the gift certificates had mixed reactions.

One lawmaker said he displayed the gift certificates in his office because they came from the prime minister.

Others said they returned the gift certificates to Ishiba’s office because they felt the timing was wrong in light of an unresolved money-in-politics scandal.

The LDP remains under fire over large amounts of unreported funds gathered through fund-raising parties and distributed to party lawmakers.

One of the rookie lawmakers said the gift certificates were returned to Ishiba’s office on March 4 because the amount would be unacceptable in the eyes of the public.

Some recipients explained that Ishiba’s aides visited their offices on March 3 and handed over the gift certificates, explaining they were presents for a dinner to be held later that day.

The gift certificates were issued by a major Tokyo department store.

Some of the recipients contacted by The Asahi Shimbun on March 13 were obviously displeased, with one asking who had leaked the information.

Others said they were still deciding what to do with the gift certificates and were consulting other lawmakers.

Although Ishiba told reporters late on March 13 that the gift certificates were an expression of his appreciation to family members, none of those contacted by The Asahi Shimbun recalled hearing that as the reason for handing over the gift certificates.

(Keishi Nishimura contributed to this article.)