The Liberal Democratic Party's Abe faction, which decided to disband in response to the incident surrounding the political funding party, held its final general meeting of members and ended its activities as a faction.
table of contents
Abe faction's last assembly of members, end of activities as a faction
History and history of the “Abe faction”
《Reactions of each member of parliament》
Abe faction top advisor Eto, former vice-chairman of the House of Representatives: ``Dissolution of the faction is natural.''
Secretary-General Takagi, former Chairman of the Country Relations Committee: ``I apologize to everyone.''
Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno: ``It's a shame. Be aware of your responsibility and act.''
Education Representative Maehara: ``Prime Minister Kishida should take responsibility for the slow response.''
Open table of contents
table of contents
table of contents
Abe faction's last assembly of members, end of activities as a faction
History and history of the “Abe faction”
《Reactions of each member of parliament》
Abe faction top advisor Eto, former vice-chairman of the House of Representatives: ``Dissolution of the faction is natural.''
Secretary-General Takagi, former Chairman of the Country Relations Committee: ``I apologize to everyone.''
Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno: ``It's a shame. Be aware of your responsibility and act.''
Education Representative Maehara: ``Prime Minister Kishida should take responsibility for the slow response.''
Abe faction's last assembly of members, end of activities as a faction
The Abe faction decided to disband in January in response to the incident surrounding the political funding party, and held its final general meeting of members at party headquarters on the 1st.
Former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shioya, who serves as the chairman, said, ``I deeply apologize for causing distrust in politics.I have been working to implement policies in accordance with former Prime Minister Abe's wishes, and I am truly sorry that this situation has come to pass.'' I'm sorry," he said.
We have also decided to abolish the "Standing Committee" that makes all decisions and to end our activities as a faction.
In the future, a committee will be set up to carry out liquidation procedures, such as canceling office contracts, and the remaining funds will be donated to public institutions.
Additionally, at the general meeting, the members in attendance questioned Mr. Shioya's political responsibility, while others expressed the opinion that ``the responsibility should not be placed on one person.''
Afterwards, Mr. Shioya told reporters, ``I was in the position of chairman at a time when a historical faction had to be closed down, and I feel truly heartbroken and sorry.'' I want to take action and make decisions at the appropriate time."
History and history of the “Abe faction”
The official name of the Abe faction is the Seiwa Policy Research Group, and it was founded by former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. It is considered to be a conservative policy group within the Liberal Democratic Party, and since 2000 it has produced one prime minister after another: Yoshiro Mori, Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe, and Yasuo Fukuda.
Since the death of former Prime Minister Abe, who was the chairman, in July 2022, there has been no chairman, and in August 2023, the chairman was appointed former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shioya, and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno and former political affairs minister Hagiuda were appointed as the chairman. We have launched a new system in which decisions are made by the Standing Executive Committee, which is made up of 15 people, including the research chairman.
At the time, it was the largest faction within the party with 100 members, and had a strong presence in the Kishida administration, with influential members known as the "Five", including Mr. Matsuno and Mr. Hagiuda, serving as cabinet ministers and party executives.
However, in December 2023, cabinet ministers and party officials resigned after problems surrounding the faction's political funding party were discovered.
We decided to disband the faction on January 19, 2024, after the prosecution brought charges against our three affiliated members and the accounting director.
Then, on January 31st, the company released a comment stating that the total amount not recorded in the income and expenditure report was 676.54 million yen for the five years up to 2022, and said, ``I sincerely apologize for causing political distrust.'' Did.
《Reactions of each member of parliament》
Abe faction top advisor Eto, former vice-chairman of the House of Representatives: ``Dissolution of the faction is natural.''
Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Seishiro Eto, who serves as a top advisor to the Abe faction, held a press conference inside the Diet and apologized for the incident surrounding the faction's political funding party, saying, ``I have lost trust in politics.I sincerely apologize.''
On top of that, the faction's party ticket income collected in excess of the sales quota was not recorded in the income and expenditure report after receiving a kickback of 10.7 million yen over the three years up to the year before 2019, and the income and expenditure report was corrected. I made it clear.
He also denied resigning or leaving the party.
Furthermore, regarding the Abe faction's decision to disband, he said, ``I think it's natural.The faction should be dissolved and disbanded.''
On the other hand, former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shioya, who serves as the chairman, expressed the responsibility of the executives involved in running the faction, saying, ``They didn't start the backlash, it's been going on for a long time, so why not make the current executives take full responsibility?'' "Is this something? We all have a collective responsibility."
Secretary-General Takagi, former Chairman of the Country Relations Committee: ``I apologize to everyone.''
Takagi, the former chairman of the National Assembly Committee who served as the secretary-general, told reporters, ``I would like to return to my original intentions and work hard in my political activities.'' When asked about his responsibility as an executive for causing the faction's dissolution, he said, ``Of course I did. I apologize to everyone who was doing their best.''
Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno: ``It's a shame. Be aware of your responsibility and act.''
After the General Assembly meeting, former Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno told reporters, ``Even during my Ronin period before becoming a member of the House of Representatives, I was guided by my senior members of the Seiwa Policy Study Group and encouraged each other as I progressed. I am devastated and disappointed. We have a long-term friendship, so we must continue to support each other." He then emphasized, ``I want everyone to be aware of their responsibility for causing great political distrust and take firm action.The most important thing is to restore trust.''
On the other hand, regarding the political responsibility of executives and affiliated members, he said, ``It has been decided that this should be done based on individual judgment.''
Former Olympic Minister Marukawa: ``I think there will still be debate about responsibility.''
Former Olympic and Paralympic Affairs Minister Marukawa told reporters, regarding how the Abe faction should take responsibility, ``There were so many voices that said they were not satisfied with the investigation of the truth, and that people in positions of responsibility should not be held responsible in any way.'' "There was an opinion that we should take action to let the people know that we had taken action. I think there will still be debate among us about responsibility."
On the other hand, regarding his own political organization, he explained that in the five years up to the year before 2017, he had not recorded in the income and expenditure report 8.22 million yen in party ticket revenue for his faction, which he had collected in excess of the sales quota. I would like to extend my sincere apologies."
Rui Matsukawa, member of the House of Councilors, ``I feel sorry for the people, former Prime Minister Abe''
Rui Matsukawa, a member of the House of Councilors, said, ``I chose the Seiwa Policy Study Group because I admired former Prime Minister Abe, but I am extremely sorry to the people that it ended like this, and I am also sorry to former Prime Minister Abe. It has to be in a form that gives a
Education Representative Maehara: ``Prime Minister Kishida should take responsibility for the slow response.''
Maehara, representative of the Association for Free Education, said at a press conference, ``The response has been slow. Steps have not been taken to clarify the whole situation, disclose the problem to the public, apologize, and take responsibility, which is a big problem.'' Prime Minister Kishida should take the biggest responsibility.''
He went on to state that, ``It is impossible for the people to leave the Diet unscathed by placing the responsibility solely on the person in charge of accounting,'' and added that the law would require that the Diet members themselves be punished if there are omissions in the income and expenditure report. He put together a reform plan that includes revisions, and expressed his thoughts on realizing it.