SNA (Tokyo) — The ghost of Shinzo Abe’s political and financial corruption has again risen up to haunt his successors, staggering the already weak administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

While most observers have long understood that the late Japanese leader was hawkish in his approach to security policy and wedded to a revisionist view of the nation’s wartime history, far less appreciated—especially outside the country—was the profoundly corrupt nature of his regime.

Indeed, much of the second half of the Abe Era involved the prime minister fending off a series of cronyism and political funding scandals (among them the Moritomo Gakuen Scandal, the Kake Gakuen Scandal, and the Cherry Blossom Party Scandal) mainly through the wholesale destruction of official documents as well as bribes and threats aimed at bureaucrats who might have a mind to expose the corruption.

Although weakened, Abe survived the series of scandals by maintaining an iron grip on both the bureaucracy as well as the ruling party—with major attempts to intimidate and control the judiciary as well. Abe, aided by his deputy and successor Yoshihide Suga, effectively maintained order through what was occasionally described in the Japanese mainstream news media as a “reign of terror.”

Kishida’s misfortune is to head the first post-Abe government that no one really fears to cross. This means that most of the ghosts which had been tightly locked away are now slipping out of their secret chambers and into the public light.

The first of these dark spirits to emerge during Kishida’s watch followed Abe’s assassination last year. Abe’s death proved to be related to his little-known family links to the Unification Church. Even many of those who were well-informed about ruling party corruption had failed to appreciate how deeply this Korean anti-communist cult had penetrated Japanese government circles. It was an alignment which had been pioneered by Abe’s own grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, and quietly maintained in the decades since that time.

Compared to the colorful rightwing educator Yasunori Kagoike of Moritomo Gakuen or the bizarre cult of Sun Myung Moon, the most recent scandal appears to be a far more pedestrian affair, well within the tradition of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ever since it was first brought together through the secret orchestration of, and financing by, the US Central Intelligence Agency in 1955.

While the exact methodology was somewhat complex, what Tokyo prosecutors uncovered boils down to the fact that the LDP Abe Faction secretly collected campaign funds on behalf of individual lawmakers and failed to report this money in accordance with the terms of the Political Funds Control Act. In other words, the Abe Faction created an illicit slush fund to support its members.

Among the senior figures who have been named in connection with this scandal are Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, Abe Faction Chairman Ryu Shionoya, LDP policy chief Koichi Hagiuda, economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Tsuyoshi Takagi, and House of Councillors executive Hiroshige Seko.

The most recent reports indicate that Kishida will sack Matsuno, depriving him of his own top governing partner.

Hagiuda’s inclusion on the list is also notable. As Abe’s closest aide during his years in power, Hagiuda has often seemed a credible future prime minister. But he has been caught up repeatedly in corruption scandals, and yet another one might finally sink him as a legitimate candidate for the top job. His public image may now be just too dirty to give him a realistic shot.

It will take some time before the full consequences of the latest scandal become manifest. At present, it looks like the Kishida administration will stagger on, perhaps mortally wounded but still on its feet.

While there are also likely to be electoral consequences down the road, it is by no means certain that liberal or leftist parties will be the ultimate beneficiaries, given their compromised state and general incompetence. It could just as likely be parties further to the political right who pick up momentum as the LDP continues to stumble.

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