Gift Cards in Japanese Politics

 The Gift Certificate Scandal Skews into an Issue of Morality and Tradition

By Takuya Nishimura, APP Senior Fellow, Former Editorial Writer for The Hokkaido Shimbun. The views expressed by the author are his own and are not associated with The Hokkaido Shimbun
You can find his blog, J Update here.
March 24, 2025. Special to Asia Policy Point

While Japan faces important questions about its political and economic future, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been spending days in the Diet defending himself from accusations that he broke the law when he distributed gift certificates – or “souvenirs” – to young lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). His gifts are now widely thought not to be a criminal matter but to present issues of morality and tradition. The opposition parties have not been able to push the prime minister to resign.

During the discussion over the FY2025 budget bill in the Upper House, the opposition parties argued that the distribution of gift certificates was illegal because the recipients could use them for political activities. Ishiba has repeatedly rejected that line of thinking. “I had no intention to let them use them for political purposes. It was just for thanking,” insisted Ishiba.

Still, Ishiba has continued to apologize for his indifference to public sentiment against luxurious gift certificates, each worth 100,000 yen (US$664), when inflation is hurting every household. “Over the years I have been called many things, such as unsociable and stingy,” said Ishiba, as an explanation of why he was encouraged to thank those young colleagues with souvenir.

He has insisted that the certificates were a private expenditure saying, “As I have been in this position (of a lawmaker) for 40 years, I have some pocket money at my disposal.” Ishiba’s strategy is to address this issue not as a matter of legality, but as one of morality. He supposes that a violation of a moral obligation does not necessarily lead to a prime minister’s resignation.

While Ishiba was defending himself, it emerged that other LDP prime ministers had done the same thing. Asahi Shimbun reported that some LDP lawmakers admitted that they had received gift certificates worth 100,000 yen from Fumio Kishida as “souvenirs” after a 2022 meeting at the private section of Prime Minister’s Official Residence. A member of the House of Representatives, Toshitaka Ooka, said that he had received “something like gift certificates” for a meeting hosted by Shinzo Abe in 2013.

Many observers suspect that the prime ministers from LDP have been giving souvenirs to junior lawmakers for a long time. The Minister of Justice, Keisuke Suzuki, who was first elected to the Lower House in 2005, thinks the opposition parties have engaged in the same practice. “I have heard a story that gift certificates for tailored business suit were offered to the members of opposition parties in circumstances such as the occurrence of a scuffle in the Diet over its procedures,” said Suzuki.

The head of the biggest opposition party, Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), has demanded an investigation of whether the souvenirs from prime ministers from LDP violated the Political Funds Control Act. Noda has not made up his mind whether to submit a non-confidence resolution to the House of Representatives. “I am going to make a decision not only relying on this issue, but with comprehensive political considerations,” said Noda.

As for the Diet’s real work, the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) has decided to vote for the FY2025 budget bill, even if it returns to the Lower House from the Upper House with changes to the high-cost medical expense benefit. The Democratic Party for the People (DPP) is not joining the opposition parties in introducing a bill to prohibit political donations from companies and organizations.

Ishin and DPP have helped Ishiba not only by joining with the LDP – Komeito coalition on policy matters but also by walking away from the coordinated efforts of the opposition parties to work against the Ishiba administration. Some opposition leaders have asked Ishiba to testify before the Political Ethics Council. Ishiba has indicated that he might do so, but it is likely that Ishiba would make the same arguments to the council on legality and morality that he has already made in the Diet.

The LDP has shown no inclination to replace Ishiba. One of the possible candidates to succeed Ishiba, Shinjiro Koizumi, has argued that the LDP must not change leaders whenever poll numbers fall. It seems like everyone around Ishiba is waiting to see how the prime minister will manage the election of the Upper House, probably to be held in July.