Editorial: Debate among Japan LDP leadership race candidates fails to tackle reform

Nine candidates contesting the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s presidency in the Sept. 27 election recently attended a debate in Tokyo hosted by the Japan National Press Club.

The race is on to pick Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s successor after he was driven into a corner over his administration’s handling of the LDP’s slush fund scandal involving faction fundraising parties. At stake is how the party is going to face the issue of “money and politics” and transform itself.

None of the candidates, however, delved into the issue well enough in their arguments, making it unlikely that the potential winner in the race can dispel public distrust in politics and people’s anxiety about daily living.

It still remains undisclosed just how the LDP factions’ slush funds were spent, among other realities surrounding the scandal. In the meantime, the party’s Aso faction was recently hit by allegations it also pooled such reserves. Suspicions have also emerged that LDP slush funds were used in offering condolence money to voters in violation of the law.

While several candidates vowed to “reinvestigate the issue if any new facts come to light,” the current situation in itself requires further probing right away.

In regard to a question of whether to officially endorse LDP lawmakers involved in the slush funds scandal in the next House of Representatives election, former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi stopped short of giving a clear answer, just stating, “The party leadership will make a decision upon rigorous evaluation.”

With respect to policy activity funds distributed from political parties to individual lawmakers with no requirements to disclose how the money is spent, many candidates urged for moving up the timing of disclosing receipts for payments from the funds mentioned in the recently revised Political Funds Control Act, or abolishing the funds once and for all.

To begin with, the slush funds scandal has brought the murky flow of political funds to light. It is a shame that none of the candidates dug into this essential question of how to bring about less costly politics.

The candidates’ policy proposals aimed at dispelling public anxiety also fell short of expectations. Their debate on economic agenda in light of the realities including Japan’s declining birth rate and fiscal woes remained only low key.

Many candidates also shied away from discussing the issue of public burden. LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi calls for promoting policy measures with no tax hikes, while former Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato advocates an income-doubling plan, but their goals lack reasonable backing.

On the diplomatic and security front, all candidates shared the common ground that the Japan-U.S. alliance remains the axis of the country’s policy. Yet they failed to paint a future for Japan-China relations and specify what roles our nation should play in rebuilding the world order undermined by the war in Ukraine and other conflicts.

The nine candidates are scheduled to canvass across the country in the leadup to the Sept. 27 LDP election. Amid sources of concern both at home and abroad, it is the responsibility of the ruling party to deepen debate over how to shape up our country while facing up to the people of Japan.