Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2008 December 17 - 22 [POLITICS]

Political parties (except JCP) receive 32 billion yen in government subsidies

Political parties, apart from the Japanese Communist Party, have received a total of 7.9 billion yen in the last of this year’s four installments of subsidies to political parties.

This year, the government paid about 32 billion yen in subsidies to all political parties (except the JCP).

The Liberal Democratic Party received 15.8 billion yen, the Democratic Party of Japan 11.8 billion yen, the Komei Party 2.7 billion yen, the Social Democratic 920 million yen, the People's New Party 383 million yen, and the New Party Nippon 203 million yen.

Refusing to accept government subsidies, the JCP has consistently called for the subsidy system to be abolished on the grounds that the use of tax money to subsidize political parties without regard for taxpayers’ political affiliation, if any, is in violation of the freedom of thought and conscience.

Every Japanese citizen is forced to pay 250 yen in support of political parties annually. The amount of the subsidy is determined according to the number of Dietmembers and the vote-getting strength of each party parliamentary elections.

The LDP received 753 million yen less than last year due to its loss of seats in the House of Councilors election in 2007. In contrast, the DPJ, which won extra seats in the same election, collected 814 million yen more than last year.

Sixty-percent of the LDP’s political funding comes from government subsidies, and the DPJ’s rate of dependence is 80 percent.