Keidanren to forego assessing 2 major parties' policies this year
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidnren), the command tower of Japan's business circles, on October 13 decided to skip this year its annual assessment of the policies of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan to help its member corporations decide on how much and to which party they should make their political donations.
At the news conference, Keidanren president Mitarai Fujio stated that the suspension of issuing a "report card" is due to the transitional character of the period following the change of government.
Keidanren on the same day publicly asked the DPJ to propose specific policies on important issues in domestic and foreign affairs and asked the LDP to play a positive role as a sound opposition party. To its member corporations, it asked to voluntarily make political donations on their own as part of their social contribution.
The "report card" issued by Keidanren on the policies of the two parties has been a flagrant policy-buying scheme by which the two parties compete with each other to best achieve the ten priority items set forward by Keidanren.
The LDP, to which Keidanren had given good marks in the past, suffered a big defeat in the general election and a change of government took place. Keidanren is thus obliged to forego giving ratings to their policies, but it will allow political donations to continue.
The JCP position regarding political donations from corporations and organizations is that they should be banned as they have an undue amount of influence on policies.
- Akahata, October 14, 2009