Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has vowed to impose strict punishments on those responsible for a political funds scandal that has rocked factions inside the LDP.
The party held the first session of its regional roundtable dialogue on political reform, aimed at reflecting the voices of its local branches in planned reform measures, as the LDP looks to rebuild trust following the scandal.
At the session in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Motegi promised members from the LDP’s Ishikawa prefectural branch that the party will swiftly implement punishments of lawmakers involved in the scandal.
“We’d like to adopt a system enabling strict action against those responsible, without making the punishments too lenient with higher-ranking members or too tough on junior members,” Motegi told reporters after the session.
For the political reform dialogue, senior LDP members including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who concurrently serves as party ledwer, will travel to all 47 prefectures to listen to what members of local LDP branches and others have to say.
At Friday’s session, many participants urged LDP lawmakers to take political responsibility.
Others voiced dissatisfaction at testimonies on the scandal given by senior members of the LDP faction once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the political ethics councils of both chambers of parliament earlier this month.
Others called for the party to follow through on its pledge to dissolve factions.