Japan Press Weekly

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2012 December 19 - 25 [POLITICS]

Y12.2billion subsidy granted to 11 parties

The ministry of internal affairs recently granted about 12.24 billion yen as the last portion of this fiscal year’s government subsidies to eleven political parties, including the Democratic Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the Komei Party. The subsidy amounts to about 32 billion yen a year.

The amount of the subsidy distributed to political parties is decided based on certain standards such as the number of Diet seats they held as of January 1, 2012.

The subsidy system, thus, enabled the already-vanished “Taiyo no To (Sun Party)” and the Kizuna Party as well as the New Party DAICHI and the New Party Nippon which fell short of the required number of Diet seats as a result of the latest general election to receive the subsidy.

Through a changing of political cliques before the Lower House election, even the non-existent parties were able to share the money funded by a tax of 250 yen per capita.

The DPJ lost a drastic number of its Diet seats in the election, but the government provided about 16.54 billion yen to the party because it held 292 Lower House seats as of January 1 this year. Given the 10.15 billion yen the LDP got this year, these two parties received 80% of total government subsidies.

Other parties awarded with the public funds were the Your Party, the People’s New Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the New Renaissance Party.

The Japanese Communist Party has refused to receive government subsidies on the grounds that it violates the constitutional right to freedom of thought and creed.