4.After the 28th House of Representatives by-election, the “Kishida ouster” finally begins: “His centripetal force has lost ground.

The former secretary-general Toshihiro Nikai (85), who had the highest amount of undeclared expenses, was not punished. The former treasurer of the Kishida faction is being prosecuted, but he, too, is not being blamed. …… The grounds for the charges are unclear” and “Is there no responsibility on the part of the prime minister?

A middle-ranking Diet member belonging to Abe’s faction said in a tone of voice, “The backstory of the April 4 announcement is not clear.

The April 4 announcement of the punishment of the lawmakers involved in the slush fund issue has accelerated the decline in Kishida’s centripetal force.

However, Prime Minister Kishida turned his back on Japan, which was in turmoil over the disciplinary action, and quickly left Haneda Airport on April 8 on a government plane to visit the U.S. as a state guest of honor.

The prime minister is in a hurry to divert voters’ attention from the slush fund issue, and diplomacy is the only way left to do so. He may have rushed to take action against the slush fund lawmakers in order to clear the air before his trip to the U.S., but he did so too quickly and too carelessly, causing an unnecessary backlash. On the other hand, I hear that he spent a lot of time practicing for his speech to the U.S. Congress in English. The discrepancy in their senses is appalling.

From the very beginning, Prime Minister Kishida’s stance was that the slush fund was a matter between the Abe and Nikkai factions and that he was not responsible for it. It is not surprising that the latest action was taken arbitrarily in anticipation of the presidential election in September, in order to use the money as material for his reelection. Akiko Azumi, a political journalist, criticizes the action taken against former policy chief Kōichi Hagiuda (60) as a prime example of this.

Hagiuda, a favorite of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (86), was given a lenient one-year suspension from his party post because he had no experience as secretary general, despite being one of the five members of the Abe faction. This is probably because Mr. Hagiuda was a unifier of the younger members of the Abe faction. It is clear that his intention was to “sweat the fall presidential election. It is likely that the decision was made to ‘keep those who can be used’ in preparation for the presidential election.”