Japan Press Weekly

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2010 December 1 - 7 [POLITICS]

80% of DPJ funding, 70% of LDP come from gov’t subsidy

The Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009 depended on government subsidies for 83.8% and 70.9% of their funding, respectively.

While calling for the eradication of wasteful use of tax money (DPJ) and thorough cuts in waste (LDP), they were using tax money to manage their finances.

According to a report on political funds released on November 30, the DPJ had an income of about 16.3 billion yen in 2009 of which, 13.66 billion yen was funded by the government subsidy. The subsidy to the LDP amounted to about 13.7 billion yen and its income was 19.7 billion yen.

Government grants to the Komei, Your, Social Democratic, and People’s New parties out of their incomes accounted for 19.4%, 44.9%, 50%, and 34.9%, respectively.

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji on December 1 commented, “They are in essence state-run parties. Our party does not receive the government grant on the grounds that it violates constitutional freedom of thought. Such an unconstitutional system should be abolished.”
- Akahata, December 1 & 2, 2010