Takaichi gives top ministry posts to 7 scandal-hit LDP lawmakers

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Wednesday appointed seven Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers implicated in a high-profile slush fund scandal as senior or parliamentary vice ministers, reversing the approach of her predecessors in a move that may draw backlash from opposition parties.

The government led by Takaichi, who on Tuesday became Japan’s first female prime minister, approved a list of 26 senior vice ministers, including Iwao Horii, Yukinori Nemoto, Hajime Sasaki and Yasuyuki Sakai.

In addition, 28 parliamentary vice ministers were approved, including Harumi Takahashi, Takuo Komori and Ryusho Kato.

The seven lawmakers were all linked to the political funds scandal and belonged to a now-defunct LDP faction formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference the government simply put “the right person in the right place” and that the LDP members in question “have already been disciplined and fulfilled their responsibility in explaining.”

The LDP, which has held power almost continuously since its founding in 1955, came under intense scrutiny after some of its intraparty groups, including Abe’s, failed to report income from fundraising events and amassed slush funds.

Since the scandal emerged in late 2023, public trust in the LDP has plunged, and the previous ruling coalition, comprising the LDP and the Komeito party, lost control of both houses of parliament in the most recent national elections.

Komeito, a self-styled pacifist party, ended the coalition over the LDP’s “insufficient” handling of the scandal.

Takaichi has already stirred controversy by appointing Koichi Hagiuda, a heavyweight lawmaker implicated in the scandal and a close confidant of Abe, as executive acting secretary general after winning the LDP presidential race on Oct 4.

Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, had refrained from appointing lawmakers linked to the funds scandal to key government posts.

With the new ruling coalition between the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party holding a minority in both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, cooperation from the opposition bloc is required to pass budgets and legislation.

Satoshi Honjo, policy chief of the largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told a separate news conference that the appointments are “very regrettable.”

Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the major opposition Democratic Party for the People, expressed a similar view, telling reporters that Takaichi’s government will be held “accountable” for the appointments at parliamentary sessions.

JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura signaled that his party has no intention of treating the appointments as problematic, saying that deciding the top ministerial posts is the prime minister’s “exclusive prerogative.”