Japanese Prime Minister considers dissolution of his LDP faction

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday that he is considering the dissolution of his faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in an effort to restore public trust in politics amid a series of political funds scandals.

This consideration arises in response to discrepancies, including omissions, identified in the financial reports of the Kishida faction's political funds as his popularity dives in polls.

Also on Thursday, the Japanese Communist Party appointed 58-year-old Policy Chief Tomoko Tamura as its new chairperson, making her the first female leader of the party in its history of over 100 years.

Observers said the party is seeking wider public support through Tamura's appointment, NHK reported.

Earlier in the day, the Kishida faction revised its political funds report after it became clear the faction had underreported approximately 30 million yen ($202,990) in income from 2018 to 2020, as reported by The Japan Times, Japan's largest English-language daily newspaper.

The Kishida faction submitted corrected political funds income and expenditure reports for the years 2020 to 2022 to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Thursday. Additional entries totaling 25.01 million yen ($169,135) were incorporated, including an extra 8.96 million yen in income from a party held in Tokyo in October 2020.

The carryover amount from 2019 to 2020 was also adjusted, increasing by 16.05 million yen and resulting in a total of around 58.79 million yen.

The Kishida faction attributed the underreporting to transcription errors and mistakes in accounting knowledge by the then-accounting personnel, expressing sincere apologies for the reporting oversight.

In a parallel development, the Mogi faction of the LDP revised its income and expenditure reports for 2021 and 2022 on Wednesday, adding 2.8 million yen in party income.

Last month, Kishida stepped down from his role as faction chief amid the deepening slush fund scandal involving the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party. Allegations suggest that lawmakers affiliated with LDP factions redirected funds exceeding the sales quota for party tickets back to the politicians as slush funds, with no record of this entire financial flow in the factions' of members' financial statements.

Suspicions have arisen that the Abe faction failed to report revenues from fundraisers totaling more than 600 million yen over the five years leading up to 2022, while the Nikai faction is alleged to have concealed over 200 million yen off the books.

Kishida did not specify whether he would call for the dissolution of other factions, a matter currently under discussion by a dedicated panel within the LDP.

The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is considering filing charges against the accounting individuals responsible for the Abe and Nikai factions for violations of the Political Funds Control Law related to false reporting, with a similar direction for the former accounting individuals of the Kishida faction, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported.