The Liberal Democratic Party has decided to punish 39 members involved in the issue surrounding the faction's political funding party, and Seko Seko, an Abe faction and former secretary general of the House of Councilors, has left the party after being advised to leave the party. There are voices within the party dissatisfied with the punishment and calls for Prime Minister Kishida to take responsibility, and it is expected that future management of the party will be affected.
Regarding this issue, the Liberal Democratic Party held a party discipline committee yesterday and decided to punish 39 members, including members of the Abe and Nikai factions.
Of these, the four Abe supporters who discussed the handling of kickbacks were Shioya, former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Seko, former House of Councilors secretary-general, who made the most serious recommendation to leave the party, Shimomura, former Policy Research Chairman, and Nishimura.・The former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry was suspended from party membership for the next most severe period of one year.
In response to this, Mr. Seko left the Liberal Democratic Party last night.
Prime Minister Kishida apologized, saying, ``I sincerely apologize for arousing many suspicions and causing serious political mistrust.''
On the other hand, regarding the fact that he was not subject to punishment, he said, ``I have to take my responsibility as party president very seriously.I will have to let the people and party members make the final decision after seeing my political reform efforts.'' I am in a position to receive it."
The Liberal Democratic Party's executive committee intends to take this punishment as a final step and move forward with discussions to prevent it from happening again, including expediting consideration of amending the Political Funds Control Act.
However, there are concerns from within the party that ``serious punishments are limited to only a few people, and it is questionable whether they will be understood by the public,'' as well as a series of complaints about the criteria for punishments and how they are decided.
In addition, there are strong voices calling for Prime Minister Kishida's responsibility, such as when Mr. Shioya, who was advised to leave the party, said, ``It is fair that each faction should be punished in the same way,'' which could have an impact on the future management of the party. It is expected.
In response, Izumi, the representative of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized him, saying, ``Prime Minister Kishida is only judging others and is the most lenient of himself.This is a very arbitrary punishment and is a punishment without the presence of the people.''
The opposition party believes that it is unacceptable to attempt to close the issue by imposing punishment, and will continue to strongly urge Abe faction leaders to be summoned as witnesses in order to uncover the truth.