Abe’s former ally fighting an uphill battle without an LDP ticket

Powerful ruling party politician Koichi Hagiuda is fighting strong headwinds in the Lower House election due to his involvement in two scandals that left many voters angry and distrustful.

Hagiuda, 61, is seeking a seventh term in Tokyo’s 24th Ward, which represents a large part of Hachioji, a city in western Tokyo long known as the “Hagiuda Empire.”

In the previous election in 2021, he won a landslide victory with a margin of more than 100,000 votes against the runner-up.

But this time he does not expect such an easy victory.

Hagiuda is among 12 Liberal Democratic Party politicians running in the Oct. 27 election without party support because of his role in a fundraising scandal that has rocked the party since last year .

A former chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, he was suspended from party posts for failing to declare 27.28 million yen ($182,000) in income from fundraising functions.

Hagiuda has also come under intense criticism for his close ties to the Unification Church, which renamed itself the Federation of Families for World Peace and Unification.

Shortly before the start of the official campaign for the 2022 Upper House elections, he accompanied the LDP hopeful Akiko Ikuina to a meeting at a Unification Church facility in Hachioji to seek support for his campaign.

As a senior LDP official, Hagiuda crisscrossed the country canvassing for votes for the party’s candidates in previous elections.

But now, as an independent, he is concentrating his efforts on retaining his own seat.

“(Hagiuda) is tense and nervous,” said a source close to his campaign.

According to sources, Hagiuda now makes the rounds of morning meetings at three or four small and medium-sized companies in Hachioji.

In the afternoon and evening, he addresses meetings of industry associations or support organizations for members of the city assembly near him.

Wherever he goes, Hagiuda apologizes for “causing distress” over the fundraising scandal.

Hagiuda, who was a close ally of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is confident of his ties to the intra-party faction once led by the slain politician.

Abe’s widow, Akie, tearfully told an Oct. 16 meeting that Hagiuda had her blessing to succeed her late husband.

Sanae Takaichi, the former minister in charge of economic security and another close Abe ally, came to rally support for Hagiuda the next day.

But the criticism seems to be following him.

In a street speech on October 19, Hagiuda said: “I never intentionally kept political funds off the books, spent them for private purposes or evaded taxes.”

One person in the audience scoffed, “Don’t make excuses!”

At one point, Hagiuda’s opponents and supporters shouted at each other.

The LDP’s junior coalition partner Komeito, which has a major presence in Hachioji, has also withheld its support.

A woman in her 80s who belongs to Hagiuda’s support organization said she felt bitter about her involvement in the fundraising scandal.

“It is outrageous that he kept nearly 30 million yen in his drawer,” he said.

The woman said she could not decide to vote for Hagiuda or anyone else because she did not trust the opposition candidates.

Still, Hagiuda could benefit from a fractured opposition.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is fielding Yoshifu Arita, 72, a journalist known for his insight into the issues surrounding the Unification Church.

The Japanese Communist Party decided to refrain from running a candidate in the single-seat constituency and to support Arita.

But Nippon Ishin (Innovation Party of Japan) and the People’s Democratic Party are running in the elections with their own candidates.

CDP Chairman Yoshihiko Noda went to Hachioji to criticize the LDP in his first speech after the official campaign began on October 15.

But one person in the audience shouted angrily that Noda should have made more determined efforts to unify opposition candidates to defeat Hagiuda.

An opposition source said: “It was a blow that the opposition parties did not have time to meet,” referring to the short period between Shigeru Ishiba becoming prime minister on October 1 and the his decision to dissolve the Lower House on October 9. for an early election.

Two other candidates, one from Sanseito, are also running in Tokyo’s 24th Ward.