SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) — A prominent Japanese lawmaker at the center of a high-profile slush fund scandal that has plagued the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Tuesday he will not run in the next general election and will retire from politics.

Ryu Shionoya, who will become chairman of the party’s largest faction in August 2023, left the LDP earlier this year. The group was previously led by late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot during an election campaign speech in July 2022.

The former education minister, who was advised to leave the LDP in April over the scandal, the second most severe penalty after expulsion among the party’s eight levels of punitive measures, filed a request for a review of the punishment but it was rejected.

Shionoya (74), a 10-term House of Representatives lawmaker, announced his intention to retire at a meeting with his supporters in his constituency in Shizuoka Prefecture, and that the faction he led would be disbanded.

The LDP, which has been in power for most of the time since 1955, has faced intense scrutiny after some of its factions, including the Shionoya group, failed to report parts of their income from money-raising parties and created dirty funds.