Japanese PM ousts 4 ministers amid political funds scandal

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday ousted all four cabinet ministers of the ruling party's largest faction, as he seeks to control the damage following a political fundraising scandal, reported Xinhua, quoting local media.

Kishida accepted the resignations of Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ichiro Miyashita and Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Junji Suzuki, all of whom are members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)'s largest faction, namely Seiwaken, or the Seiwa policy study group previously led by late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kyodo News reported.

The political upheaval came as the LDP has recently been under heavy scrutiny amid accusations that its largest faction failed to declare hundreds of millions of yen in fundraising events revenue in political funding reports, possibly pooling secret funds.

Matsuno, who is suspected of receiving more than 10 million yen (69,000 U.S. dollars) from kickbacks from fundraising events hosted by his party faction, will be replaced by former Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, the report said.

Former Justice Minister Ken Saito will become economy minister, while Takeaki Matsumoto will be reinstated as internal affairs minister, and Tetsushi Sakamoto, former minister in charge of regional revitalization, was named as farm minister.

All the successors are former cabinet ministers and belong to LDP factions other than the Abe faction, or do not belong to any group.

The mass resignations leave the LDP in the very unusual situation of having no representatives from the party's largest faction within the cabinet, Kyodo News reported.

Five vice ministers and a parliamentary vice minister belonging to the Abe faction also stepped down from Kishida's government on Thursday, it added.

Meanwhile, three heavyweight lawmakers of the LDP, policy chief Koichi Hagiuda, parliamentary affairs chief Tsuyoshi Takagi and Upper House Secretary-General Hiroshige Seko, all belonging to the Abe faction, resigned from party leadership posts on the same day as the funds scandal escalates, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The political funds scandal engulfing Japan's main ruling party emerged following a criminal complaint alleging five LDP factions, including Kishida's group, underreported their revenue from political fundraising parties, from which the extra income may have been returned to some of their lawmakers as kickbacks.

Traditionally, LDP factions have assigned quotas for lawmakers on the sale of party tickets, usually priced at 20,000 yen. If they surpass their targets, the extra funds are returned to them as a type of commission in some groups.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has decided to launch a full-scale investigation into the Abe faction, suspecting a possible violation of the political funds control law as the faction allegedly reimbursed members with part of party revenue from ticket sales amounting to around 500 million yen over a five-year period through 2022, according to Kyodo News.