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

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?