Japan Press Weekly

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2011 September 28 - October 4 [POLITICS]

Cabinet members accumulate excess money from subsidies to political parties

Seven ministers of the Noda Cabinet have amassed a total of 58 million yen from money not used in subsidies given to political parties, Akahata discovered.

All parties except the Japanese Communist Party annually receive 32 billion yen in government subsidies to political parties.

While parliamentarians are supposed to return to the national treasury any unused portion of the subsidies, they do not do so since they are allowed to accumulate the money as a “fund”.

As of the end of last year, Minister for Government Revitalization Renho had on deposit 25.34 million yen of the public subsidy, including 19.83 million yen left over from 2009.

Hirano Tatsuo, minister in charge of post-disaster reconstruction, has stored more than 24 million yen.

While the political parties are awash in money given to them from the national treasury, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko’s cabinet plans to increase tax burdens on the general public to fund reconstruction from the Great East Japan Disaster.