Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appears poised to step down from his role as chief of his faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) amidst a burgeoning slush funds controversy, as reported by local media on Thursday.
According to Kyodo news, Kishida, who also serves as the LDP president, is expected to announce his resignation from leading Kochikai, the party's fourth-largest faction, later in the day, as noted by Xinhua news agency.
Kochikai is one of the five LDP factions implicated in allegations of understating revenue from political fundraising events, where excess funds might have been funneled back to some lawmakers as kickbacks.
Seiwaken, the largest LDP faction formerly headed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has come under scrutiny for allegedly accumulating secret funds amounting to approximately 100 million yen (around 679,000 U.S. dollars) over at least the past five years until 2022. Recent media reports have indicated that around 10 LDP lawmakers within the Abe faction received kickbacks.
While it's customary for many prime ministers to maintain a certain distance from their factions during their tenure, Kishida has remained actively engaged as the leader of his faction since assuming office in October 2021.
This decision to step down follows Kishida's call on Wednesday for all LDP factions to refrain from hosting fundraising events temporarily. The Japan Times characterized the prime minister's actions as being in "damage control mode," indicating efforts to address and mitigate the fallout from the scandal.
(With Agency Inputs)
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