The fuses have blown. Three Japanese ministers tendered their resignations on Thursday, according to local media, after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the day before that he would confront a huge financial fraud scandal within his party.
According to several Japanese news agencies, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, Interior Minister Junji Suzuki and Agriculture Minister Ichiro Miyashita submitted their resignations on Thursday morning.
“Public distrust of political money is directed at me, which leads to distrust of the government. “Since an investigation is underway, I thought I should clarify the matter,” Nishimura told reporters.
3.2 million euros checked
According to press reports, Japanese prosecutors are investigating suspected fraud against dozens of members of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, right-wing conservative) led by Mr. Kishida, a political group that has ruled the country almost continuously since 1955.
According to several media outlets, they are suspected of not having declared the equivalent of several million euros that would have been collected through the sale of tickets for charity evenings and then paid out to them by the PLD.
The investigators are particularly interested in members of the largest internal party faction surrounding former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was murdered last year. Its members would have received around 500 million yen (3.2 million euros) over a period of five years until 2022.
“Fireball”
Kishida considered it “extremely unfortunate that the situation has aroused distrust among the population” and vowed on Thursday to “turn into a ball of fire to restore confidence in the government” and announced on Thursday that he would “swiftly move forward.” “want to proceed with the appointments”.
According to Japanese media, Kishida is preparing to replace the three resigned ministers as well as the general secretary and government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno. A total of nine ministers and deputy ministers would be affected by the reshuffle.
All the ministers set to be replaced belong to the “Abe faction”, although the scandal would also affect members of Mr Kishida's faction, according to local media.
Even before this scandal, the 66-year-old Kishida's popularity rating was already weighed down by other issues of dissatisfaction among Japanese people, including persistent inflation and the fall of the yen, which are weakening household purchasing power, despite the announcement last month of a massive new stimulus plan .
The prime minister can theoretically remain in power until 2025, but some analysts are speculating about the possible calling of early elections ahead of an internal vote in the PLD next year, which could prove very difficult.