TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida apologized Thursday over a money scandal involving factions of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, at a hearing of a political ethics panel in the country’s parliament.

“As party president, I offer my heartfelt apology for causing great public suspicion and distrust in politics,” Kishida told the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament.

“We must promote reforms to establish compliance” in the LDP, the prime minister said.

“(The party) must improve itself,” he added. “The LDP must make a drastic fresh start.”

It was the 10th time that a political ethics panel hearing was held since the panel’s establishment in both chambers of parliament in 1985, and the first with a Lower House member appearing before the panel since 2006.

It was the first panel hearing with a sitting prime minister in attendance.

Former internal affairs minister Ryota Takeda, who was a secretary-general of a faction headed by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, will face the panel later Thursday.

On Friday, the panel’s hearings will be held for former industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, former education minister Ryu Shionoya and former LDP Diet affairs leader Tsuyoshi Takagi. Shionoya previously headed the decision-making body of the LDP faction once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Matsuno, Nishimura and Takagi all previously served as top secretary at the Abe faction

JIJI Press