Japanese Prime Minister Kishida will participate in a Diet panel on the funds scandal on Thursday.

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday he plans to attend a parliamentary hearing into the political funds scandal that has rocked his Liberal Democratic Party, in an apparent attempt to break the impasse in the negotiations on the launch of the procedure.

The ruling and opposition parties said they agreed to hold the House of Representatives political ethics committee meeting for two days starting Thursday, a day later than initially planned, with Kishida scheduled to appear on first day in the presence of the media.

Meanwhile, four lawmakers from the largest LDP faction at the center of the scandal, including former Commerce Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, are expected to join the session on Friday. This will also be entirely open to the media.

The panel meeting was due to be convened on Wednesday, but its opening was delayed after the ruling and opposition parties clashed over whether media would be allowed to attend.

Kishida will be the first outgoing prime minister to attend the deliberative council on political ethics, last held in July 2009. The committee is tasked with examining the political and moral conduct of lawmakers facing allegations of wrongdoing.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kishida told reporters in his office that he would like to fulfill his responsibilities over the scandal as LDP chairman to restore public confidence in politics.

He added that it was “extremely regrettable” that the ongoing “standoff” between the ruling blocs and the opposition had prevented the session from taking place, indicating that he hoped his fellow LDP MPs would accept also the presence of the media.

The LDP has come under scrutiny over allegations that some factions, like the one Kishida led until December, neglected to report some of their fundraising income and created black funds.

So far, a total of 10 individuals belonging to these factions have either been indicted or subjected to summary indictments by prosecutors.

Kishida’s pledge comes as his government aims to ensure the rapid adoption of a budget for the next fiscal year starting in April. The Diet’s deliberations on the budget are at an impasse due to the impasse in the committee hearings.

Even if the ethics committee hearings are, in principle, behind closed doors, they can be made public with the agreement of the participants. Of nine similar cases in the past, only one, in 1996, was completely closed, while five were open to the media.

The LDP said five members, including lawmakers from its largest faction, had expressed willingness to attend the hearings, but some of them were reluctant to participate if they were open to the media.

Kishida is expected to explain fundraising parties he has held since coming to power in October 2021. He has been criticized for holding such events, as a code of conduct for ministers urges cabinet members to refrain from organizing “large-scale” parties.

Last week, the LDP announced that two lawmakers, Ryu Shionoya, de facto leader of the largest faction previously led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Ryota Takeda, a senior member of another intra-party group, would attend the advice.

The proposal, however, was not accepted by the opposition camp, which demanded the presence of a larger number of PLD deputies. Later, the LDP said three other senior members of its largest faction would attend the lower house council session.

They are Nishimura, former chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and former LDP Diet affairs chief Tsuyoshi Takagi, all of whom previously served as general secretary of the Abe faction.

About 580 million yen ($3.9 million) in total was donated to 82 incumbent lawmakers from the two factions over a five-year period through 2022, the party said.