Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 27 - December 3 TOP3 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Political donations from utilities to LDP increase threefold after Fukushima accident

Political donations from electric utility company executives to the Liberal Democratic Party in 2012 increased threefold from 2011, the year witnessing the Fukushima nuclear crisis, according to political parties’ annual financial reports recently published by the Internal Affairs Ministry.

This shows that leaders of power companies have returned to their pre-Fukushima accident position seeking favors in exchange for political donations, Akahata reported.

According to the reports, among nine electric power companies operating nuclear power plants, 53 board members of six companies donated 4.09 million yen in total to the People’s Political Association, the LDP’s political fund management organization. The amount of donations in 2011 was 1.26 million yen from 37 executives of five power companies.

At Tohoku Electric Power Company, 14 directors, including President Takahashi Hiroaki, offered political donations, though no executives in the company did so in the previous year. The number of Hokuriku Electric Power Company executives who sent contributions to the LDP jumped from zero in 2011 to 15, with President Kyuwa Susumu himself donating 200,000 yen.

Meanwhile, member companies of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, Inc. and subsidiaries of the nine electric power companies contributed more than 300 million yen in total to the LDP’s political fund management body.

Power companies had stopped making donations to political parties since 1974 due to public criticism on political donations by public utilities. However, companies’ top officials began making “personal” donations, actually continuing the offering of political donations.