Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is being criticized for distributing gift certificates to 15 first-year lawmakers in his party in a scandal shaking his already weak grip on power.
Ishiba has denied breaking political funding laws and said he won’t resign. But opposition lawmakers and rivals in his own party have said the gifts were excessive and showed Ishiba was out of touch, especially after the governing Liberal Democratic Party had a disastrous election loss last year due to its earlier political funding irregularities.
Japanese media reported earlier this week that Ishiba’s aide delivered gift certificates worth 100,000 yen ($670) to the offices of the 15 lawmakers prior to their private dinner with the prime minister.
Ishiba is leading a minority government after his LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito lost the October election in the lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. LDP remains the largest party, but its steep losses made it less cohesive.
The beleaguered prime minister has already struggled to get his budget approved and rival conservatives are looking for chances to oust him.
Ishiba on Thursday night admitted giving the gift certificates as a souvenir and in appreciation for their work.
He apologized for causing concern and displeasure, but said the vouchers were not intended as donations for their political activity and that none of the recipients live in his electoral district. The gift certificates can be used for purchases at department stores in Japan.
At a parliamentary session Friday when opposition lawmakers grilled him over the vouchers, Ishiba repeatedly said the gift did not violate the political funds law or the public election law.
The effort by the LDP’s most-conservative members to push Ishiba to resign comes ahead of major elections this summer, including the upper house election in July, one that leading opposition parties see as a chance for a change of government.
Earlier this week, an ultra-conservative LDP lawmaker Shoji Nishida called on his fellow lawmakers to choose a new leader, saying LDP cannot win by having Ishiba as the face of the party.