Japan Press Weekly

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2021 November 24 - 30 [JCP]

JCP reports on its balance sheet in 2020

The Japanese Communist Party Central Committee on November 26 released its political funds report for fiscal 2020, with an aggregate revenue of about 20.29 billion yen, total spending of 19.90 billion yen, and about 1.43 billion yen carried over.

The income in 2020 decreased to 99.2% while the gross expenditure also declined to 97.5%, relative to 2019.

Iwai Tetsuya, head of the JCP Finance Commission, reported, "No national election took place in 2020, but we expected the general election to be held in 2021. We managed to secure enough reserves in preparation for the general election to come, which resulted in a slight surplus."

Iwai added, "In 2020, we implemented fiscal measures necessary to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, making belt-tightening efforts by reviewing conventional ways of party activities. Online national meetings were one example."

The JCP refuses to receive government subsidies to political parties as the money comes from taxpayers' money and is distributed to political parties, irrespective of people's political beliefs, which is in violation of the Constitution. The JCP also refuses to accept political donations from corporations and organizations as the money is tainted by an influence-peddling nature.

The JCP covers all its finances with party dues, subscription fees of "Shimbun Akahata", sales from party publications, and donations from individuals. In 2020, we especially focused our efforts on raising individual contributions in preparation for the general election. Some of the JCP members and supporters who passed away left bequests to the JCP, leading to 1.4 times more donations from a year earlier. Business activities related to Shimbun Akahata and various magazines accounted for 85.7% of the total income and 62.6% of spending.

Iwai said, "This clearly shows that the JCP is deeply connected to people mainly through Shimbun Akahata."