Prime Minister Fumio Kishida apologized for the financial scandal rocking his ruling Liberal Democratic Party but stopped short of offering concrete measures to prevent recurrences. In his opening policy speech in the Lower House on Jan. 30, Kishida touched upon the huge amounts of money accumulated through fund-raising parties by LDP factions. “As president of the LDP, I deeply regret having brought about a situation in which the public looks on lawmakers with a suspicious eye and I offer my sincere apologies,” he said. Saying that stable politics are not possible without the public's trust, Kishida repeated the ... (full story)