December 5, 2024

The Japanese Communist Party and six other parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party, on December 4 jointly submitted to the House of Representatives a bill to abolish “policy activity funds” provided by political parties to their lawmakers with no obligation to disclose for what purpose the money was used.

The submission of the bill took place with the aim of achieving political reform following the uncovering of the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush-fund scandal.

In order to scrap “policy activity funds, the seven parties’ bill aims to prohibit the expenditure of funds by way of money that is paid in advance to individual politicians from political parties with no provision to require them to disclose how the money is used.

After the submission of the bill, JCP member of the House of Representatives Tamura Takaaki, vice chair of the JCP Diet Policy Commission, expressed his determination to have the bill enacted as soon as possible. Furthermore, he stressed that a total ban on political donations from corporations and special interest groups constitute the core issue pertaining to political reform. He said, “In order to meet people’s demand for reform in politics, I’ll work together with other parties to impose a ban on corporate and organizational donations.”

CDPJ lawmaker Ogushi Hiroshi, talking about the significance of the joint proposal of the bill, said, “I’m sure our bill will respond to public expectations. Considering the ruling bloc’s loss of majority control in the Lower House, it is highly likely that the opposition parties, if united, will win the passage of the bill.”

In addition, the CDPJ lawmaker referred to an LDP-drafted bill to revise the Political Funds Control Act. He criticized the LDP’s bill for having a loophole that enables political parties to not make public their expenses with excuses, such as involving diplomatic matters and privacy concerns.