6 Independents to Join LDP Parliamentary Group

Tokyo, Oct. 30 (Jiji Press)--Six independents elected Sunday to Japan’s House of Representatives will join the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s group in the all-important lower chamber of parliament, a senior party official said Wednesday.

They include four people who ran without the LDP’s endorsement following their involvement in the party’s slush funds scandal--Hiroshige Seko, Koichi Hagiuda, Yasutoshi Nishimura and Katsuei Hirasawa.

Even after the addition of the six, the LDP-led ruling coalition has only 221 seats, shy of a majority in the 465-seat Lower House.

Seko left the LDP in April after he was urged to quit the party over the scandal, in which fundraising party revenues paid by some LDP factions to member lawmakers were not properly reported.

Nishimura’s party membership was suspended for one year, while Hagiuda and Hirasawa were banned from party executive posts for one year.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]