Behind the high approval rating of “Prime Minister Takaichi”…why former Abe faction “backers” gathered at a “yakiniku restaurant in Shinbashi” popular among food connoisseurs.

Former Abe faction members gathered at a yakiniku restaurant

On March 12, about 20 people gathered at Yakiniku Yachan, a restaurant slightly away from the downtown area in front of Shimbashi Station, which does not use frozen meat and is patronized by a well-known celebrity who is a food connoisseur.

Those gathered were members of the former Abe faction, which once numbered more than 100 and was the largest faction within the LDP.’ Although most of the members of the faction lost the election to the House of Representatives in 2012 due to the “factional slush fund issue,” 39 members were elected in the general election in February of this year in a “Takaichi whirlwind. While a waiter was carving lumps of meat in front of him, Yasutoshi Nishimura, 63, chairman of the election campaign committee and one of the former Abe faction’s “five members,” said.

Let us support Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her administration with our own hands.

According to the participants, the meeting was organized by Nishimura and Kōichi Hagiuda, 62, the deputy secretary-general, and was led by Hidetaka Suzuki, 51, a former parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office. The meeting was attended mainly by young Diet members who were not elected in the last Lower House election in 1949, and newcomer Shinichiro Kawamatsu, 45, a member of the House of Representatives, enlivened the event.

On February 25, the week after the special Diet session was convened, members of the former Abe faction gathered at Kamonka, an upscale Chinese restaurant in Akasaka. 63-year-old Hiroshi Matsuno, former Chief Cabinet Secretary, who was absent from the February Chinese meeting, showed up at the March yakiniku meeting and tucked into the famous halami and tongue with the younger members.

In the ’24 general election, the Seiwa-kai (the former Abe faction) was criticized as the source of the factional slush fund problem, and was named as a “slush fund member.

The cup was served with snacks of “A certain kind of unsuccessful election,” in which he was separated from his vigorous supporters, and complaints about the management of the Ishiba administration at that time. Prime Minister Takaichi was also a member of the Seiwa-kai at one time, and there is a high degree of policy affinity between the two. The participants talked about the old days when he left the faction because of a tight quota on party tickets and the unusual excitement when he came to his constituency to support his party, and the meeting reaffirmed the unity of the Seiwa-kai.

When the Takaichi administration took office last October, Mr. Hagiuda was selected as acting secretary-general, followed by Mr. Nishimura’s appointment as chairman of the election campaign committee, one of the four party leaders, and Mr. Matsuno’s appointment as head of the organization campaign headquarters in February this year. The election campaign chairman is one of the most influential posts in the party, along with the secretary-general, in selecting and approving candidates.

The high approval rating of Mr. Takaichi has helped calm the issue of the distribution of gift catalogs, but he is still a lone wolf, and his base within the party is still weak. The Aso faction, which currently supports the administration, may distance itself depending on the situation, and the former Abe faction and some new members may be selected in the hope that they will function as a “support team for Takaichi.

In response to the factional slush fund issue, the LDP’s internal governance code prohibits the formation of old factions, but allows the formation of policy groups as institutions for policy study, human resource development, and education.

Who are the big-name legislators who have recruited many new council members?

After the general election, 66 new Diet members were born, and cases of recruiting them broke out. Among them, the Aso faction, the only one that survived, recruited new members one after another, and the number of new members has now grown to 60.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi (70) and former General Secretary Ryota Takeda (57) have also held meetings to recruit new members one after another. By holding regular meetings, the faction seems to be moving toward a return to a substantial factional structure.

With the presidential election coming up next fall, Takaichi’s close associates are aiming for an uncontested reelection. With the Cabinet’s approval rating remaining at a high level, they may be looking to increase the number of Takaichi sympathizers in the party by pitting Mr. Hagiuda against Mr. Nishimura.

However, with inflation remaining high and the international situation uncertain, there is no way that the Cabinet will be able to maintain its approval rating until next fall. The former factional leaders are recruiting new councilors and are strengthening the return to their own faction. The LDP is prepared to make immediate moves when there is a breakdown in the one-party rule of Takaichi,” said a LDP official.

After the election, the LDP now has a total of 417 members in the lower house and the upper house. Within the party, which has swelled to its largest since the end of World War II, the seeds of a rebellion against the Takaichi administration are already beginning to swell.