Fundraising scandal in Japan's ruling party turns up heat on embattled PM Kishida

Trust me, I am innocent, that's all Abe-san & his great uncle's fault !

Perhaps you could upvote if you think nothing will come of this and downvote if you still have faith in the system to root out political corruption.

both Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno had overseen the faction's bookkeeping in the past five years, according to the Yomiuri newspaper.

Not surprising that two rampant Nippon Kaigi diehards would be up to their necks in all this.

Don't forget that Kishida is at the top of the LDP. He's going down and taking the rest of the party with him.

The LDP have been collecting $$$ on the sly & passing brown envelopes around non-stop since the end of WWII, toss in all bid rigging(olympics anyone) and the amounts involved are insane, one of the reasons things are expensive & why we get so so so little value for our taxes here, but they are above the law.

Time to ""sacrifice"" a couple of the usual fall guys, ie. "secretaries" who are designed specifically for this purpose...... rinse & repeat!!

@Bertie

Don't forget that Kishida is at the top of the LDP. He's going down and taking the rest of the party with him.

I thought you'd been in this country for a number of years... No? Corruption and the LDP go hand in hand. This has been widely known for decades, but because of the advanced state of apathy, disinterest, cluelessness etc. in the general population this is a story that's set to be repeated ad infinitum. Change the face of the "contrite" soon-to-be-outgoing PM, and put the next set of corrupt fossils into place. Nothing changes. Surely Jeeves must have mentioned that once or twice while leaving your breakfast tray.

3 downvotes already? Are you seriously disputing that corruption & the LDP go hand in hand??

Kishida's days are numbered. I think we'll have a new PM pretty soon.

It'll be interesting to see which 'faction' the next PM comes from.

Unfortunately my money is on Sanae Takaichi. The first woman PM could be a big enough story to try and take the attention away from the Abe connections and the Unification church / funding scandals.

Dr MaybeToday  07:32 pm JST

3 downvotes already? Are you seriously disputing that corruption & the LDP go hand in hand??

I'm very curious about the downvotes on comments about these kinds of stories. It's quite common to get 15 - 20 of them yet none of the downvoters have anything to say for themselves. I take the lack of a persuasive counter-argument as a sign that there's no dispute about it at all.

LDP is corrupt to the core. Always has been.

I've been here since the 70s (60s actually but too young to remember politics) and there has ALWAYS been financial scandals with every LDP administration. When are they going to massively punish this behavior and end the stealing?

He grew up in America, wasn’t democratically elected as PM and has devastated Japan, is this a competition between him and Abe?

I don't doubt there is corruption, and corruption that is much worse than this.

But

 several dozen lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), including current ministers, next week over more than 100 million yen

is like a few million yen, e.g., a small car each. The world's third largest economy and that's all it takes to buy off a ruling politician?

Globalists in charge all behave similarly all over the world.

They are placed, not elected, their agenda is to obey their leaders, and their leaders don’t care about you.

Call it LDP, but it’s globalism.

Get rid of this scourge on humanity, that forever works against us; propelling wars, disease, energy, food and supply shortages to keep you in constant state of anxiety and fear, and in control...

Using your ever rising taxes not for your benefit, but to money launder for various “causes” back to themselves.

Corruption and globalism are one in the same.

Pigeons coming home to roost...US-created LDP rotten to the core.

See ya Kish. It will drag out over months but this is the beginning of the end. Ultimately Kishida will take the blame, step down and be replaced by another cog in the LDP machine.

Go Prosecutors GO,

Charge them 18% interest on all Kickbacks & hidden funds plus forced retirement with NO PAY for at least 5 years.

LegrandeToday 12:31 am JST

Pigeons coming home to roost...US-created LDP rotten to the core.

Do you think anyone buys that Japan bears no responsibility for its politics?

@Taiwan

Do you think anyone buys that Japan bears no responsibility for its politics?

If you can find anywhere that I said that I'll buy you a car.

As it stands yet another outstanding gem of a statement by you.

So far 17 keep the faith. I think that tells us something.

kohakuebisu

Dec. 7 10:06 pm JST

...is like a few million yen, e.g., a small car each. The world's third largest economy and that's all it takes to buy off a ruling politician?

Perhaps they have concerns that bigger bribes would be harder to conceal . However I suspect they're raking in cash from more than one benefactor so there's probably enough for as many small cars as they want. Or big ones.

As a wise man once said -

"It will be a sad day for this country when a leading politician cannot spend his election expenses in any manner that he sees fit."

When former LDP kingmaker Shin Kanemaru got caught thirty years ago, the press showed the police carrying huge amounts of gold bullion from his home. It was like the bus in the Italian Job!