Political parties other than JCP received 44 billion yen in 2007 in government subsidy

Japan Press Weekly

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

Political parties other than JCP received 44 billion yen in 2007 in government subsidy

Japan’s political parties other than the Japanese Communist Party received 44 billion yen in government subsidy in 2007, the largest amount since the system was introduced in 1995 along with the single-seat constituency system for the House of Representatives election, according to financial reports for 2007 made public by the government on September 12.

The government has subsidized these political parties with about 32 billion yen in tax money every year for 13 years. This means that every citizen has been forced to contribute 250 yen to political parties whether they support them or not.

The political party subsidy system is in contravention of the constitutional rights of freedom of thought and belief in that it allows tax money to be used to subsidize political parties regardless of citizens’ political party preference.

Only the JCP has refused to accept the subsidy.

The parties that received a total of 44 billion yen used 26.8 billion yen for their election campaigns and other political activities.

In the Liberal Democratic Party, 80.8 percent of 620 million yen in election-related costs came from the government subsidy. Almost all of its public relations costs were paid from the subsidy.

The opposition Democratic Party used the subsidy to pay all its election-related costs (1.18 billion yen) and 98.5 percent for public relations-related costs (8.48 billion yen).

The DPJ used 4.98 billion yen of tax money to produce and air its TV commercials. The DPJ paid about 9 trillion yen to Hakuhodo, Inc. and some other major advertising agencies.

In the past 13 years, the LDP received 196.2 billion yen, the DPJ 95.3 billion yen, the Social Democratic Party 29.7 billion yen, the Komei Party 29.7 billion yen, and 57.1 billion yen for other parties combined. - Akahata, September 13, 2008