Payment to JCP Diet secretaries is clear: JCP refutes LDP

The Japanese Communist Party rejected a Liberal Democratic Party allegation that the JCP is misusing part of salaries paid by the government to secretaries to JCP Dietmembers.

Fudesaka Hideyo, acting JCP Secretariat head, on March 29 rebuffed Yamasaki Taku, LDP secretary general, saying that salaries for government-paid secretaries to JCP Dietmembers are "crystal clear and above board."

LDP Yamasaki stated that it is improper for the JCP to receive political donations from JCP Dietmembers' secretaries, while rejecting government subsidies to political parties, which all parties except the JCP accept as funds for their political activities.

The JCP's employing and paying system for secretaries are as follows: (1) they are adopted by the JCP Central Committee from among its staff; (2) all secretaries are engaging in policy-making and legislative activities, none of them being in name only; (3) the difference in salaries between CC employees and Diet secretaries is adjusted with the latter donating to the JCP head office based on their consent, and their donations are used exclusively for JCP Diet activities; and (4) the accounting on these transactions are properly dealt with and made open in accordance with the Law to Regulate Money Used for Political Activities.

In sharp contrast to some LDP Dietmembers' secretaries who are busy in concession-hunting by taking advantage of public works projects, the JCP is playing a leading role in investigating bribery scandals involving former LDP Dietmembers Suzuki Muneo, Kato Koichi, and the Foreign Ministry, said Fudesaka.

On Yamasaki's anti-JCP campaign concerning the JCP's compliance with the Political Fund Control Law, Fudesaka said, "The state subsidies for political parties violate the Constitution because they require every Japanese citizen to contribute money irrespective of their political belief. Yamasaki does not comprehend the difference between such an allotment of taxpayers' money and contributions from parliamentary secretaries."

Fudesaka also stated that there are no JCP Dietmembers who appoint their relatives as secretaries. Some LDP Dietmembers claim their wives and children as secretaries. The LDP must make efforts to eliminate such a collusive system and back-stage dealings by exploiting their secretaries, he emphasized. (end)