The Liberal Democratic Party has decided to formally censure former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for walking out of the lower house before a vote on a consumption tax cut bill, a punishment with no precedent for a former party president.
The party made the decision on the 9th, three days after Ishiba left the floor of the House of Representatives ahead of the vote on the 6th. According to party headquarters, no former LDP president has ever been disciplined before.
Ishiba told reporters on the 6th that he could not set aside his concerns about the bill. "The funding source is not clear, and the finances will be damaged," he said. "Those concerns cannot be dispelled."
The censure — a formal reprimand that stops short of suspension or expulsion — puts the party's treatment of a former leader on the record. Ishiba led the LDP and the government before the current administration.