Embattled Japan PM faces ethics committee, with popularity and budget on the line

TOKYO – Mr Fumio Kishida on Feb 29 became the first sitting Japanese prime minister to appear before a parliamentary ethics committee, as he sought to draw a line under a funding scandal that has hurt his popularity and may delay 2024’s budget.

Mr Kishida’s attendance followed weeks of wrangling between the opposition and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) over the technicalities of holding the hearings, which will look into how some LDP factions failed to report hundreds of millions of yen from fund-raising parties.

The opposition had demanded a full public hearing that would include the five key members of the biggest faction caught in the scandal. The LDP had argued for a closed session.

“As the LDP leader, I apologise from my heart that this fund-raising issue has raised suspicion and caused distrust in politics among the people,” Mr Kishida said in opening remarks before being questioned.

Mr Kishida is not directly implicated in the scandal, but said during questioning that he would not host any more fund-raising parties during his term as prime minister.

He also urged for a legal system that holds both accountants and lawmakers accountable for their finances.

Support for Mr Kishida and his ruling LDP has dipped to its lowest point since Mr Kishida took the top post in 2021, with approval for the Premier hanging at 25 per cent and support for the LDP at about 30 per cent, according to a poll by broadcaster NHK in early February.

The negotiations over the hearing have also threatened to delay the fiscal 2024 budget, which Mr Kishida hopes to pass in the Lower House by March 2 to secure the 30 days necessary for a budget to be adopted automatically before the fiscal year starts in April.

“We must not have a situation where the budget is not adopted according to plan,” Mr Kishida said at the committee hearing.

A failure to deliver the budget smoothly would deal another blow to Mr Kishida as he tries to drum up support ahead of an LDP leadership contest in September, Mr Tobias Harris, an expert on Japanese politics at the German Marshall Fund think-tank, said in a note.

“If Kishida is to survive to fight for another term in September, he has to make a convincing display of cleaning house, put the scandal to rest, and hope that good economic news and some diplomatic achievements – a state visit to Washington in April, for example – allow him to make the case for his leadership again,” he said. REUTERS