Japan’s main opposition party submitted a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet on Thursday in response to the enactment of a revised political funds control law which has been criticized for failing to improve financial transparency in politics.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan submitted the motion which is expected to be supported by the second-largest opposition Japan Innovation Party and other minor parties, but it is sure to be voted down by the majority-holding ruling bloc in the House of Representatives.
The CDPJ demanded more drastic changes in the amended law, including a ban on corporate donations to political parties, as it campaigned to restore public trust in politics that it says has been undermined by a fundraising scandal involving Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
But the ruling coalition consisting of the LDP and its junior partner the Komeito party approved the bill which passed the Diet the previous day ahead of the end of the current ordinary parliamentary session on Sunday.
The LDP has come under intense scrutiny amid allegations that some of its factions, particularly the largest formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, neglected to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and created slush funds for years.
Jun Azumi (center R) of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan submits a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet to House of Representatives Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga (center L) in Tokyo on June 20, 2024. (Kyodo)
With approval ratings sitting at their lowest ebb since Kishida’s Cabinet was formed in October 2021, the prime minister pledged to revise the political funds control law to improve the transparency of spending by lawmakers.
The amendments included lowering the threshold at which names of those who purchased fundraising party tickets must be revealed. They also changed the reporting rules for policy activity funds provided by parties to senior lawmakers.
The opposition camp railed against the changes which they said do not go far enough.
During a parliamentary debate among party leaders on Wednesday, meanwhile, Kishida rejected opposition calls to immediately dissolve the lower house, with the focus now shifting to whether the Japanese leader can secure reelection in the LDP’s presidential race to be held around September.
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