Japan PM Ishiba admits handing out gift vouchers to new lawmakers
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Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba apologised for causing concern and said he would not stand down from his post.
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TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba confirmed that he distributed gift vouchers to 15 lawmakers, raising questions about whether he skirted political funding laws and casting another cloud over his already weak position as support for his minority government sags.
“From how I understand it, this is not something that infringes on the law,” he said when addressing reporters on March 13 on the matter first raised in a report by The Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
The Premier maintained that the vouchers, with a value of 100,000 yen (S$900), did not run afoul of funding or election laws because they were not intended as donations for political activity, and the lawmakers do not live in Mr Ishiba’s district. The vouchers can be exchanged for goods at department stores.
He apologised for causing concern and said he would not stand down from his post.
The voucher fracas comes as Mr Ishiba faces rising pressure from within his own party as lawmakers prepare for national elections this summer.
Mr Shoji Nishida, an Upper House member in the Liberal Democratic Party, urged his peers in a closed-door meeting earlier this week to choose a new leader, Kyodo News reported. Public support for Mr Ishiba slipped in February due in part to the rising cost of living.
His position has been tenuous from the start after the Liberal Democratic Party performed poorly in the 2024 General Election not long after he took up his post as premier.
“I paid for these vouchers... with my own pocket money, as a token of appreciation for the lawmakers’ families,” Mr Ishiba said, admitting that the vouchers were distributed to the offices of newly elected lawmakers ahead of a dinner earlier in March.
He has struggled to pass the national budget for 2026. He struck a deal with an opposition party to secure enough votes to pass the budget in the Lower House but has since flip-flopped on his position on high-cost medical care, requiring the budget to be revised in the Upper House. Bloomberg
