Japan kickback scandal widens for PM Kishida to include group within ruling LDP he previously ran
- Prosecutors have been investigating a kickback scheme involving the ruling LDP, and new reports claim a faction that PM Fumio Kishida once led is being probed
- Kishida whose poll ratings continue to plummet was already reported to be preparing to sack four ministers this week over the snowballing allegations
A graft scandal rocking Japan’s ruling party widened on Tuesday with a faction within the LDP headed until recently by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reportedly now also implicated.
Prosecutors are already investigating claims that reportedly around 500 million yen (US$3.4 million) in kickbacks went to Liberal Democratic Party officials over the past five years.
The money allegedly was paid to party members who exceeded their ticket sales quotas for party fundraising events and was not properly declared to the tax authorities.
Until now the allegations have been confined to the largest of at least five factions within the LDP that was once led by assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
But fresh media reports on Tuesday said the faction headed by Kishida – until he quit it last week – may have also under-reported its income, although the amount was unclear.
Kishida, whose poll ratings are the lowest for any premier since the LDP returned to power in 2012, was already reported to be preparing to sack four ministers this week over the snowballing allegations.
They include the premier’s right-hand man Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, who reportedly accepted more than 10 million yen (US$68,000) in kickbacks and who declined to comment on Tuesday.