Lower House passes bill to revise the Political Funds Control Law

   With the majority vote of the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties, the House of Representatives on June 14 approved a bill to revise the Political Funds Control Law. The Japanese Communist Party voted against the bill.

   The bill will require politicians’ fund management bodies to attach receipts of expenses of more than 50,000 yen to the political funds reports. It will also prohibit those bodies from possessing or buying real estate. They will also be required to report on real estate that they are currently possessing.

   While the ruling parties proposed revision of the Political Funds Control Law in the wake of a series of office expense scandals involving cabinet ministers and Dietmembers of the LDP and the Democratic Party of Japan, this bill will not serve at all for the investigation of the scandal since it will be applied only from the funds reports in 2008.

   In the House of Representatives Plenary Session, JCP representative Sasaki Kensho criticized the ruling parties and the DPJ, stating, “The fundamental problem lies in the refusal by the politicians involved in the scandal of making public the truth. However, the ruling parties and the DPJ have shifted the discussion from finding out the facts to revision of the system.”

                               - Akahata, June 15, 2007