The latest case involving a Japanese Diet member involves aberrational abuse of power, or what is known as power harassment. The recent degradation in the quality of legislators is just appalling.

Mayuko Toyota, a House of Representatives member from the Liberal Democratic Party, has tendered a written resignation from the party. Her departure from the LDP was to take responsibility after her abusive behavior was called into question. Toyota was found to have lashed out at a secretary inside the car that he was driving, saying, “Why don’t you die? You’re not worthy of living.” She also used violence against the secretary, hitting him in the face and back.

Toyota is a former bureaucrat. Elected to the lower house for the first time in 2012, she has served in such positions as parliamentary vice minister at the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.

The latest incident occurred after her misconduct had already become known. At an Imperial garden party in the spring of 2014, for example, Toyota had trouble with guards as she forcibly let her mother in, although her mother was not permitted to join the event. It is said that her secretaries and other staff do not last long on the list of personnel in her office, as they have quit one after another.

The LDP’s leadership urged Toyota to leave the party for fear that the latest case might adversely affect its campaign in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, the start of which was officially announced Friday. She accepted the request.

Toyota may have had no choice but to quit the party. A fundamental question arises as to why such a thoughtless and unqualified lawmaker has served in important positions until now.

Within the LDP “the 2012 problem” has been pointed out before. This refers to various forms of misconduct by LDP lower house members who were elected for the first time in 2012 and are now serving their second terms, including Toyota.

In August 2015 Takaya Muto left the party over a financial problem involving unlisted stock shares. Last year Kensuke Miyazaki resigned from the lower house over a scandal involving an extramarital affair.

This year Shunsuke Mutai stepped down as parliamentary vice minister after causing a stir over a remark he had made in connection with his visit to a disaster-stricken area. “Rubber boot manufacturers have made profits,” he said. Toshinao Nakagawa also resigned from another parliamentary vice minister position after revelations about his scandalous relations with women. Hideo Onishi quit as deputy head of the LDP’s Tokyo chapter over his comment that cancer patients “do not have to work.”

The current state of affairs is serious.

The LDP was an opposition party at the time of the 2012 lower house election. As it had a small number of sitting lawmakers in that chamber, the party fielded a large number of first-time candidates in the race. Many of them were easily elected due to a nice tail wind supplied by a record of repeated mismanagement by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government.

Supported by a high approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, they were lucky to be re-elected in the 2014 lower house election. It is no exaggeration to say that all this has backfired on them now, combined with the LDP’s arrogance and lack of seriousness under its predominance in the current political landscape.

LDP leadership is aware of the problem involved in the decline in the quality of its junior Diet members. Although there were calls within the party for more seriously training them regarding Diet-related activities and other matters, the proposal fell through. The LDP’s factions are not functioning as bodies responsible for complementing efforts by the party to produce and educate party members.

The LDP leadership should not leave the status quo unaddressed.