Cabinet exodus shakes Japanese government as four cabinet ministers resign, several others to be replaced

In a major blow to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration, four cabinet ministers resigned on Thursday due to a fundraising scandal involving the ruling party’s most influential faction. Allegations suggest that over ¥500 million ($3.4 million) ended up in undisclosed funds over a five-year period through 2022. Tokyo prosecutors have initiated a corruption probe in response to the crisis. This development adds to the challenges faced by Prime Minister Kishida, whose government has seen a sharp decline in approval ratings. A recent NHK survey revealed that public support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) fell below 30%, the lowest since 2012. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, considered Kishida’s right-hand man, along with Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, Internal Affairs Minister Junji Suzuki, and Agriculture Minister Ichiro Miyashita, resigned. The replacements for these ministers are expected to be announced later today. Furthermore, five senior vice ministers and a parliamentary vice minister from the same faction, once led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, also stepped down. This leaves the LDP in the unprecedented situation of having no representatives from its largest and most powerful faction within the cabinet. Prime Minister Kishida, in office since October 2021, pledged to confront the allegations head-on. The faction is accused of not reporting hundreds of millions of yen in fundraising income, with a system involving quotas for selling tickets to party events. While not inherently violating Japanese law, the allegations imply that the additional revenue was kept off the books and diverted into slush funds. Despite a no-confidence motion against Kishida’s cabinet being rejected by the Lower House of Japan’s Diet on Wednesday, the ongoing scandal may significantly impact his credibility. Analysts suggest that although Kishida may retain power for now, a strong contender emerging could lead to a potential change in leadership dynamics, with leadership elections scheduled for September and a general election in 2025.