Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 18 - 24 TOP3 [POLITICS]

DPJ’s quest for closer relations with business world

The Democratic Party of Japan is making it clear that it wants to strengthen relations with business organizations.

The largest opposition party, the DPJ controls the House of Councilors as a result of the 2007 election, and it sees that victory as a sign of the business circles’ expectations for them. Thus, it is trying hard to seize this opportunity to emerge victorious in the next House of Representatives election.

As part of this effort, the DPJ is asking corporations, business organizations, and company unions for cooperation in holding a fundraiser at a Tokyo hotel on July 14 in preparation for the next House of Representatives general election.

The party plans to raise 250 million yen from the sale of fundraiser ticket to about 4,000 businesspeople and politicians.

Selling the expensive party tickets (about 20,000 yen on average) to companies and organizations is tantamount to receiving corporate donations.

About 84 percent of the DPJ’s income, or about 12 billion yen, comes from tax money under the name of the government subsidy.

Stressing that the party’s revenue from party ticket sales is small at present, DPJ Vice President Okada Katsuya says DPJ lawmakers are called upon to peddle the party’s fundraiser tickets to business groups and other organizations, emphasizing the need to target a broader range of corporations and their groups.

In fact, when Okada became the DPJ president in 2005, the party had a fund-raising bonanza thanks to big purchases of tickets by industrial groups and corporations that are members of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), Japan’s largest big business lobby. - Akahata, June 24, 2008