Corrupt relations between ruling LDP and insurance companies criticized

A Japanese Communist Party member of parliament has revealed that 21 major life insurance companies gave the ruling Liberal Democratic Party 1.4 billion yen in donations from 1992 through 2001.

JCP representative Sasaki Kensho revealed this in a House of Representatives financial and banking committee meeting on April 15.

Donations to the LDP are made through the National Political Association, the LDP's fundraising organization.

Sasaki criticized the LDP for "accepting political donations from insurance firms that lobbied the parliament for a measure to allow tax money to be used for helping failing insurance companies rebuild themselves."

He also pointed out that seven out of the ten insurance firms that failed after 1997 continued donating money to the LDP until the year before they went bankrupt.

The government scheme to use tax money for preventing life insurance companies from going bankrupt expired on March 31, and the governing parties have introduced to the current Diet session a bill to extend the rescue measure after April 1st.

Finance Minister Shiokawa Masajuro refused to admit that there has been any wrongdoing regarding donations to the LDP, saying, "These donations have been accepted lawfully." He also repeated the LDP's view that "donating money to political parties is a form of participation in politics." (end)