Don’t cut Diet seats - cut government subsidies to political parties!

Japan Press Weekly

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

Don’t cut Diet seats - cut government subsidies to political parties!

Local newspapers have recently run editorials or letters-to-the-editor columns calling for cuts in government subsidies to political parties rather than reducing the number of the Lower House proportional representation seats as called for by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Iwate Nippo on July 14 ran an editorial on the results of the July 11 House of Councilors election in which more than 40 percent of voters chose political parties other than the DPJ and the Liberal Democratic Party. It questions whether or not the DPJ’s call for cuts in Diet seats by 80 will be compatible with the expressed intent to reflect a wide variety of public opinions in Diet proceedings. The editorial proposes that the government subsidies to political parties, the system introduced in 1995 to supposedly prevent political parties from depending on corporate donations, be abolished in order to reduce monetary waste in the Diet.

Iwate Nippo on July 2 also published a letter-to-the-editor in which the writer argues that a cutback in the state subsidy to political parties of about 32 billion yen will have the same effect as eliminating 450 Dietmembers and that what should be cut is not the number of lawmakers but the amount of public funding to political parties.

An editorial in The Tokyo Shimbun of July 8 suggests that the system of using tax revenues for political parties be included in the government’s cost-cutting efforts. The editorial points out that all parties, except for the Japanese Communist Party, divide 32 billion yen between themselves and states, “If they keep saying they are in favor of implementing cost saving measures, this will be a much more practical way to do so.”

Based on the latest Upper House election outcome, the DPJ will receive 17.1 billion yen in state subsidies and the LDP 10.3 billion yen. Increasing its seats by ten, the Your Party will receive 675 million yen, 87% up from the previous 361 million yen it received. The Your Party made a major leap with its slogan for the election campaign, “Eliminate waste before raising the consumption tax!” However, the party unabashedly accepts the money.

The source of the state subsidy shared between applicable parties is a mandatory tax of 250 yen per capita. The JCP has never accepted this money because the system forces taxpayers to make political donations, irrespective of which party they support, in violation of the constitutional freedom of thought and belief. The JCP has been demanding the abolition of the system since its introduction in 1995.

- Akahata, July 15, 2010