The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is increasingly concerned that a bribery scandal within the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly will impact next spring’s unified local elections.

Isao Kurauchi, head of the assembly, announced his intention to resign Monday as a member of the assembly, although he didn’t specify his reason for quitting.

The LDP member told reporters on Aug. 19 that he plans to step down as assembly head at an appropriate time to take responsibility for the turmoil within the legislative body.

Past heads and deputy heads of the assembly have stated that they had paid large sums of cash to senior officials of the assembly’s LDP group prior to assuming their posts.

The LDP’s headquarters has taken a wait-and-see approach to the issue since it came to light in July.

“The LDP’s Fukuoka prefectural chapter has great and strong autonomy,” LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki said at an Aug. 4 news conference.?

The LDP is apparently concerned that if the party headquarters directly deals with the prefectural issue, it could be regarded as a problem for the party as a whole.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has kept her distance from the issue, saying, “It is important for the prefectural chapter to confirm the facts.”

Meanwhile, the LDP leadership team is trying to prevent the impact of the scandal from spreading across the country, after the party suffered crushing defeats in the 2024 election for the House of Representatives and the 2025 election for the House of Councillors in the wake of the high-profile slush funds scandal among LDP factions.

An LDP official voiced concern about the possibility of the party facing dismal results again in the local elections next spring.

The LDP’s coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, is critical of the scandal at the Fukuoka prefectural assembly.

“The Fukuoka assembly has been the slowest to take reform measures, so it needs to be revamped,” JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura, who is also the governor of Osaka Prefecture, told reporters Monday.

Among opposition parties, Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, said at a news conference in the city of Fukuoka on Monday that Kurauchi’s resignation will “not solve the essence of the problem.”

At a separate news conference the same day, Akira Koike, head of the secretariat at the Japanese Communist Party, questioned the LDP’s stance, saying, “Will the party close ranks to defend (its prefectural members involved in the scandal)?”