Japanese PM Kishida sees off no-confidence motion M Haris

ANKARA: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday survived a no-confidence motion over controversial political funds control legislation.

The motion, voted down in the country’s House of Representatives, had been submitted by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) against Kishida’s Cabinet in response to the passage of a revised political funds control law, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

The law was criticized for failing to improve financial transparency in politics, noted Kyodo.

The CDPJ demanded more drastic changes in the amended law, including a ban on corporate donations to political parties, as it campaigned to restore public trust in politics which it accuses Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party of undermining in a fundraising scandal.

However, the ruling coalition, consisting of the LDP and its junior partner the Komeito party, approved the bill passed in the Diet, Japan’s national legislature, the previous day before the end of the current ordinary parliamentary session on Sunday.

The LDP has come under intense scrutiny amid allegations that some of its factions, particularly the largest formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, neglected to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and created slush funds for years.