Townspeople start signature drive to end subsidies to political parties

For the first time as residents united, 200 organizations of residents of Shinjuku Ward in central Tokyo in late May started a signature drive demanding an end to state subsidies to political parties.

Since 1995 when the subsidy system began, 257 billion yen (2.1 billion dollars) of tax money has been given to all political parties except the Japanese Communist Party which rejected to accept it.

Each year, 31.7 billion yen (264 million dollars) is used as subsidies. Every Japanese citizen is forced to contribute 250 yen (2 dollars) every year to parties, including those which they do not support. In 2003, the Liberal Democratic Party received 15.2 billion yen (126 million dollars), the Democratic Party of Japan, 8.6 billion yen (71 million dollars), and the Komei Party, 2.9 billion yen (24 million dollars).

Emphasizing that the people are suffering from the prolonged economic recession, the federation of the town block associations in Shinjuku Ward in April unanimously decided to demand that the system of supplying political parties with huge amounts of tax money end.

In late May, the federation started collecting signatures on the petition that asked, "Has politics become cleaner in the last eight years under the subsidy system? Have corruption and scandals around politicians disappeared?"

The federation's President Osaki Hideo stated, "We demand tax money be redirected to helping small-and medium-sized businesses and people in distress. Our movement is politically neutral." (end)