Toshihiro Nikai, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight, said Monday that he will not run in the next general election to take responsibility for his intraparty faction's involvement in a political funds scandal.
Announcing his decision before Prime Minister Fumio Kishida makes a final decision on disciplinary steps over the scandal, Nikai, 85, a former party secretary general who has worked for better ties with China and South Korea, apologized for the scandal, saying, "It is entirely my responsibility" as head of his faction.
Nikai's announcement came as the LDP is considering taking punitive steps next month against around 80 lawmakers related to the scandal from Nikai's faction and the biggest intraparty group formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Such a step would mark the party's biggest disciplinary action, exceeding in scale its penalizing of 50 members who opposed a bill to privatize state-run postal services under then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2005.
Among the 80 lawmakers, four executives of the Abe faction, such as former trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, are expected to face severe punishments, including possibly losing the party's endorsement in elections, LDP sources said.
The LDP has come under intense scrutiny amid allegations that some of its factions, including one previously headed by Abe, neglected to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and created slush funds for years for their members. A faction Kishida formerly led also admitted to underreporting funds from such parties, although he has denied it created slush funds.
At a parliamentary session on Monday, Kishida said he plans to question the four members of the Abe faction later this week, along with other senior LDP lawmakers, over their involvement in the scandal.
Kishida, meanwhile, said he himself would not be subject to penalties given that his faction, unlike the Abe and Nikai groups, did not pass back money to members who had exceeded their quotas for sales of tickets to fundraising parties to use as slush funds.
The Nikai faction allegedly failed to declare more than 30 million yen ($198,000), resulting in the indictment without arrest of a former accountant of the faction and the issuance of a summary indictment against a secretary of Nikai's in January.
Nikai said the LDP's candidate for his House of Representatives seat in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, would be decided by the party's local chapter. Kishida responded to Nikai's decision by saying it was "made after careful consideration."
The Nikai faction decided to disband after Kishida announced earlier this year that he would dissolve his group over the scandal. The Abe faction has also decided to disband. Abe was fatally shot in July 2022.
The current four-year terms of lower house members will expire in October 2025, but with the approval ratings for Kishida's Cabinet tumbling against the backdrop of the scandal, there is speculation that he could dissolve the lower house for a snap election before seeking to retain the LDP leadership in the party's presidential race around September.
Nikai, a 13-term lower house lawmaker, is the longest-serving LDP secretary general, having held the post for over five years from 2016.
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No plan to call election before scandal-hit figures punished: PM Kishida
