TOKYO: The Japanese ruling party faction formerly led by Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio on Tuesday submitted to the internal affairs minister a notice to disband itself as a political group.

It became the second faction of the Liberal Democratic Party to disband itself after the faction that was headed by LDP General Council Chairman MORIYAMA Hiroshi.

“I had been told by the (Kishida faction) secretariat that it would submit a final dissolution notice around early September,” Chief Cabinet Secretary HAYASHI Yoshimasa, a member of the faction, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.

In January, Kishida said that he would disband his faction in the wake of a high-profile slush funds scandal involving LDP factions. In June, the Kishida faction closed its office in Tokyo’s Nagatacho political district.

Among other LDP faction heads, MOTEGI Toshimitsu, the party’s secretary-general, told a news conference that he is quickly advancing procedures to dissolve the faction he leads.

JIJI Press