TOKYO: The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s faction previously led by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to dissolve itself, it was learned Thursday.

The Kishida faction will abolish its political organization and office.

Kishida hopes to encourage other LDP factions to follow suit amid mounting public criticism of a political funds scandal involving such groups, including the party’s biggest faction, formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“I’m considering dissolving (the Kishida faction),” Kishida told reporters at the prime minister’s office. “If it helps restore trust in politics, we must consider it.”

The Kishida faction is expected to be disbanded after the LDP releases an interim report on political reform Jan. 25, according to a senior faction member.

Kishida served as head of the faction until he quit last month after the scandal broke.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office plans to build a case against a former chief accountant of the Kishida faction on suspicion of violating the political funds control law.

The faction submitted to the internal affairs ministry the corrected versions of past political funds reports Thursday.

Kishida agreed on the same day with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi and other senior faction members to dissolve the group, sources said.

A source close to the prime minister said Kishida “will not let (the faction) remain even as a policy group.”

His aim is to “take the lead,” a faction member said, adding that the remaining LDP factions will be left to decide their own fates.

However, LDP factions may continue to exist in a loose form of organization, as some lawmakers claim that bonds between faction members will remain.

Established by former Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda in 1957, the Kishida faction has produced five prime ministers. It is the fourth-biggest LDP faction with 46 members.

JIJI Press