Japanese PM Kishida to replace 4 scandal-hit Cabinet members

Japanese PM Kishida to replace 4 scandal-hit Cabinet members

Japanese PM Kishida to replace 4 scandal-hit Cabinet members

Japanese Prime Minister (PM) Kishida Fumio plans to replace four cabinet members involved in a political fund scandal. This scandal has reduced public support for Kishida’s fragile administration.

According to Natsuo Yamaguchi, PM Kishida has the intention to remove Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno who occupies one of the most influential positions in government. Natsuo is the president of his ruling coalition partner.

Who are scandal-hit cabinet members?

The four cabinet members are Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu and Economy, Trade, and Industry Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi. As well as Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Suzuki Junji, and Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Minister Miyashita Ichiro.

Kishida’s decision to dismiss the four comes in the wake of a growing money scandal involving a group called the “Abe faction”. Former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo formed this group.

PM Kishida was the chairman of this group who withdrew from it last week to take a more neutral stand. The four stained cabinet members belong to the Abe faction who will be replaced.

Japanese PM Kishida to replace 4 scandal-hit Cabinet members

Kishida is scheduled to conduct a press conference shortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss future actions regarding the scandal.

Abe faction scandal brings no-confidence motion against Kishida

Izumi Kenta, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, accused Kishida of destroying public trust in politics. He claimed Kishida’s government has lost legitimacy and is no longer operating and filed a no-confidence motion against Kishida’s government.

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Izumi tweeted he recently submitted a motion of no confidence in the Kishida Cabinet to the House of Representatives. If there are any sensible members of the ruling party, please support it.

The Kishida Cabinet’s failures occurred one after another and the government lost its legitimacy due to unchecked illicit funds.

PM Kishida is facing criticism for the fundraising scandal of his party Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Abe faction manages the political funding of the LDP. About 99 members of the Abe group failed to declare the income that member MPs received over their quotas.

They have accusations of hiding hundreds of millions of yen in political funding for years in a plan that saw certain MPs get revenues from off-the-books ticket sales to party events.

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