Political Responsibility Evades All as ‘Seiwa-kai’ Holds Final Meeting: Yoshiro Mori’s Alarming Agenda

The chairperson should resign from the Diet.

“He should act in a way that will be communicated to the public.”

He was not indicted on legal charges, but he needs to be held politically accountable.”

February 1, LDP headquarters, No. 701. The “last lunch” prepared for the Seiwa-kai was the “Ningyocho Imahan Sukiyaki Bento,” a long-established sukiyaki restaurant that has been in business since the Meiji era (1868-1912). However, none of the Diet members would have enjoyed the bento.

The Seiwa-kai (Abe faction), which decided to dissolve its faction due to the issue of slush funds from political fund parties, held its last general meeting of lawmakers. Young and middle-ranking members of the Seiwa-kai came down hard on the executives sitting opposite them.

Among them, the most pointed criticism came from the chairman, Tate Shioya (73). Kenta Wakabayashi (60), Hideo Onishi (77), and Nori Sasaki (49), all members of the Diet, held Shiotani responsible as described at the beginning of the meeting. Mr. Shiotani, seated in the middle of the executive’s seat, looked pale, and did his best to reply, “We will take this very seriously and make the appropriate decision,” and “Only after the party’s hearing investigation is completed. Former policy chief Kōichi Hagiuda (60), former METI Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura (61), and former Minister of Public Prosecutions Hirokazu Matsuno (61) looked down and did not speak.

Tomomi Inada, 64, former defense minister, said in an attempt to rebuke them, “It is not the fault of any one individual, but rather the fault of the Kiyokazu government.

The Seiwa-kai should take measures to deal with this problem, not as the responsibility of any one individual, but as a problem for the Seiwa-kai as a whole.

Former Seijiro Eto, 82, former vice chairman of the House of Representatives and a top advisor to the Seiwa-kai, offered a helping hand.

It is not a matter for the chairperson alone to take responsibility.

A member of the Diet who participated in the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “It is not a matter for the chairperson alone to take responsibility.

The three who pursued Mr. Shiotani are also close to Yoshiro Mori, 86, the chairman of the board. Mori’s scenario is to place the blame on Shioya alone and offer him up as a human sacrifice so that the five members (former Senate Secretary General Hiroshige Seko, former policy chief Kōichi Hagiuda, former Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Matsuno, former METI Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, and former National Diet Relations Committee Chairman Takeshi Takagi) will not be adversely affected.

If the five members are unharmed, they probably believe that there will be a chance for a revival someday, including that of Chairman Mori. The composition of the situation is that Mr. Eto, who has been stared down by Chairman Mori and continually removed from important positions, guessed it and took checks and balances.”

On the same day, it was also decided to establish a “liquidation management committee” of Abe Faction executives to proceed with procedures for dissolving the political organization. Under the Liquidation Management Committee, a team of legislators qualified as lawyers and certified public accountants will take charge of the practical work.

Some suggested that the remaining funds after the dissolution, excluding court costs for the indicted treasurer, be donated to the areas affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake or to the Red Cross.

In his closing remarks, Takeshi Takagi, 68, former chairman of the National Diet Committee, who sat beside Shioya, concluded, “The Seiwa-kai has been dissolved!

With this, the Seiwa-kai is dissolved!”

Every Thursday at noon, everyone gathers together to discuss issues over the same food to strengthen the unity of factions. This used to be a common sight at noon on Thursdays in Nagata-cho.

Since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (66) announced the dissolution of his faction on January 18, the Aso Faction has continued to hold its Thursday noon gatherings. Other factions and groups have canceled their gatherings.

The only good thing about Mr. Takagi’s tenure as secretary general was his taste in bento boxes. During Takagi’s tenure, high-end bento boxes such as eel bento, hamburger steak bento from a long-established restaurant in Ginza, and sukiyaki from Imahan were chosen.

During the time of his predecessor, Mr. Nishimura, who was a former member of the University of Tokyo boxing team and still maintains a slender figure, the Secretary General’s era did away with fried foods such as pork cutlets, and instead, the bento was a healthy bento centered on simmered vegetables and fish. At the time, I was dissatisfied, saying things like, ‘Another week of vegetarian food,’ or ‘I want fried food,’ but now even that vegetarian food is nostalgic (wry smile).

Abe Faction officials will begin interviews on April 2 with Yutaka Moriyama, 78, chairman of the General Affairs Committee, and Yuko Obuchi, 50, chairperson of the Election Committee, among others. Based on the contents of the investigation, the party’s executive committee will take disciplinary action.

Forty-five years have passed since the lawmakers who gathered under Takeo Fukuda, the former prime minister, formed the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai. The LDP had a long period of being on the sidelines, but by the beginning of 2000 it had produced five prime ministers, including Yoshiro Mori, Junichiro Koizumi, Yasuo Fukuda, and Shinzo Abe, and by April 2011 it had flourished, with a hundred members.

In April 2011, the group had a total of 100 members. “In November of last year, the slush fund problem was uncovered, and since then the executives have been shoving the blame around, with no one mentioning specific responsibility at the last general meeting, nor making any statements about their future. No one mentioned specific responsibility at the last general meeting, and no one spoke about his or her future. “I saw the executives’ relief when they said, ‘Now we can sleep (after the indictment on January 19),’ and I saw no signs of remorse,” said the aforementioned council member.

Forty-five years ago, when Kakuei Tanaka’s money politics was criticized, the Seiwakai was a political organization founded under the slogan of “integrity. However, after seizing power and enjoying the spring of the world, the party’s founding aspirations faded away.

When I asked Masahiko Shibayama, 58, former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, about the taste of his sukiyaki bento immediately after the Diet members’ meeting, he replied, “The faction that nurtured me, the faction that brought me up, they were the ones who made me feel like a member.

I took a bite of it and ate every last morsel. We will renew ourselves as a policy group that can face the people.

While inviting the public’s distrust of politics, the executives of the Seiwa-kai have shown no ability to cleanse themselves to the last. They have all said that they have “fulfilled their political responsibilities” by resigning from cabinet and party positions, and they deny that they have voluntarily resigned from the Diet or left the party. What responsibility will the party executive board hold them accountable for?