Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2016 November 23 - 29 [POLITICS]

Corporate donations to LDP increase since Abe returned to power

The amount of corporate donations to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has increased for three consecutive years since Prime Minister Abe Shinzo returned to power in 2012.

The LDP received about 2.73 billion yen in donations from corporations and other organizations in 2015, according to the 2015 political funding report released by the Internal Affairs Ministry on November 25. The amount increased by more than one billion yen from 2012.

The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), the largest business organization in Japan, resumed calling on its member companies to make contributions to the LDP in 2013. The amount of corporate contributions to the governing party has grown every year as the Abe administration has implemented policies beneficial to large corporations such as substantial corporate tax cuts.

In response to Keidanren’s call, Japan’s three megabanks – Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ – donated to the LDP 20 million yen each in 2015. The banking community, including the three major banks, had refrained from making contributions to the party since 1998 when the LDP government used public funds to clean up their bad loans.

Companies in the nuclear power industry, including NPP operators, donated a total of 760 million yen to the LDP in 2015. The amount increased by over 2.5 times from 300 million yen in 2012.

In the interests of nuclear power-related firms, the Abe government has restarted idled nuclear reactors one after another and permitted utilities to continue to operate aged atomic reactors beyond the legal limit of 40 years. In early November, PM Abe signed an agreement which allows Japan to export nuclear power technology to a non-NPT member, India.

Past related article:
> Japan and India sign nuclear power pact [November 12, 2016]