LDP Disciplinary Committee Expected To Ask Two Snr Off'ls To Leave Party

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) may punish as many as 39 of its members and urge two senior officials to quit over a political funds scandal that further undermined the approval ratings of PM Fumio Kishida's embattled administration. The meeting of the party's disciplinary committee started at 4pm Tokyo time at the LDP headquarters and is ogoing.

• LDP sources told Kyodo News that the disciplinary committee is expected to ask Ryu Shionoya (de facto leader of the defunct Abe faction) and Hiroshige Seko (ex-LDP Secretary General, senior Abe faction official) to leave the party.
• A couple of other Abe faction members, ex-Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and ex-LDP policy czar Hakubun Shimomura will likely have their memberships suspended for one year.
• In addition, Hirokazu Matsuno and Koichi Hagiuda, also senior members of the Abe faction, are facing one-year suspensions from party positions. A couple other high-profile officials may also face penalties.
• The exclusion of Toshihiro Nikai and Fumio Kishida himself from the list of members subject to penaties has sparked some controversy, given that their factions were also implicated in the scandal and were dissolved as a result.
• The absence of Nikai and Kishida among punished members may stoke some dissatisfaction within the party, as will the penalties themselves. Asahi reports that Shionoya called his punishment "unreasonably severe."