Former education minister Ryu Shionoya, the de facto leader of the Abe faction, and Hiroshige Seko, former LDP secretary general in the House of Councillors who is also a high-ranking member of the Abe faction, were advised to leave the party, the second-severest penalty among the party’s eight levels of punitive steps following expulsion.
In response to the decision by the ethics panel, Seko told reporters he offered to leave the party.
Separately, Shionoya criticised a decision not to punish Kishida, saying it would only be “fair” to give the prime minister the same treatment.
Among other senior Abe faction members, former trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and former LDP policy chief Hakubun Shimomura were punished by having their party memberships suspended for one year.
At a news conference after the committee meeting, LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi said that the party took more severe steps against the Abe faction executives in light of their roles, calling their political responsibility “extremely heavy”.
Tsuyoshi Takagi, who served as secretary general of the Abe faction and LDP Diet affairs chief, was penalised with a half-year party membership suspension.
Hirokazu Matsuno and Koichi Hagiuda, both of whom were also key Abe faction members, and Ryota Takeda, a senior member of another intraparty group headed by Toshihiro Nikai, were suspended from party positions for a year.
The list of LDP members subject to the penalties excluded Nikai, who has decided not to seek reelection as a lawmaker, and Kishida.
Kishida has said he will not be subject to penalties because his faction, unlike the Abe and Nikai groups, did not pass back money to members. The Kishida, Abe, and Nikai groups have decided to disband in the wake of the scandal.
The steps are the LDP’s most extensive disciplinary action since it punished more than 50 members in 2005 after they opposed a bill to privatise the state-run postal service under then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.
02:14
Japanese PM appoints 5 women to his cabinet amid reshuffle
Japanese PM appoints 5 women to his cabinet amid reshuffle
In an internal probe, 85 LDP members, including three who are not lawmakers but plan to run in the next election, were found to have failed to declare around 580 million yen (US$3.83 million) as revenue in their political funds reports for five years through 2022.
Earlier this week, Motegi requested a disciplinary committee meeting to decide on the punishment of the 39 incumbent and former lawmakers, most of whom failed to declare at least 5 million yen in their political funds reports.
The severity of punishment differed among nonexecutives of the factions depending on the amount of funds passed back to them, with those who received 20 million yen or more having their party positions suspended for a year.
LDP members who received 10 million yen or more but less than 20 million yen faced a six-month suspension from party positions, while those receiving amounts worth 5 million yen or more but below 10 million yen were given formal warnings.