corporate

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries receives more money in subsidies on R&D than all small enterprises combined

Shiokawa Tetsuya, former Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives, has revealed that the amount of money that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. received in government subsidies on research and development (R&D) is larger than the total amount of government subsidies to the nation's small- and- medium-sized enterprises combined.

In 2004, Mitubishi was the largest recipient of subsidies under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry program (10.1 billion yen), while the total amount of subsidies to five million smaller firms was 8.9 billion yen.

Mitsubishi in turn donated 10.29 million yen to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2003, indicating that it got its "kickback."

The top 10 corporate giants receiving R&D subsidies donated 114.32 million yen to the LDP in return for 46.5 billion yen in subsidies.

Mitsubishi's chairman, the president of Hitachi Ltd., the second largest R&D subsidy recipient, and the chairman of Toshiba, the fourth largest recipient, were vice-chairs of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) at the time.

Nippon Keidanren, ostensibly to establish a "policy-oriented government," evaluates policies of each political party and uses its influence to have its members donate money to parties. The business federation is very thankful to the ruling LDP for making efforts to allocate R&D subsidies, especially in the fields of "bio, IT, environment, and nano-technologies."

Shiokawa said, "The Koizumi Cabinet appropriates a larger amount of subsidies to large corporations, while it allots a meager amount of tax money to smaller firms despite the fact that they are the key players in the Japanese economy." He also stated that we cannot allow the government to be "policy-centered," which uses our tax money for subsidies only benefiting large corporations in return for their political donations. He added that we should drastically correct the current distorted government policy of primarily serving business circles and corporations. -- Akahata, August 29, 2005