The Liberal Democratic Party took significant disciplinary measures against 39 lawmakers after a political fund scandal that has caused significant damage to the party and the Kishida administration. Among those penalized were key figures from the Abe faction, with the strictest punishment being handed out to Ryu Shionoya, the head of the Abe faction's executive board, and Hiroshige Seko, a former secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus, who were urged to leave the party. These actions by the LDP marked the second harshest disciplinary measure, following expulsion, among the party's eight disciplinary measures.
As part of the disciplinary process, 31 of the lawmakers submitted statements to the party expressing their opinions before the measures were finalized. Shionoya, in his statement, expressed dissatisfaction with the severity of the punishment, calling it unjustifiable and protesting what he perceived as dictatorial party management by party executives. He claimed that members of the Abe faction were being severely punished without clear standards or evidence of punishable misconduct being presented. Additionally, Hakubun Shimomura and Yasutoshi Nishimura, former secretaries-general of the Abe faction, had their LDP memberships suspended for one year, while the current faction secretary-general, Tsuyoshi Takagi, will face a six-month membership suspension.
The LDP disclosed that 36 lawmakers from the Abe and Nikai factions were reprimanded for failing to report 5 million yen or more in revenues from their faction's fund-raising activities on political fund reports over a span of five years through 2022. Despite Shionoya, Shimomura, and Nishimura disclosing underreported amounts that were less than 5 million yen, they were penalized for compromising public trust in politics. The scandal involved the practice of redirecting party ticket sales proceeds that exceeded individual lawmakers' sales quotas back to those Diet members, with 82 incumbent lawmakers and the managers of three LDP branches being implicated for failing to report the refunds over the five-year period.