Japan Press Weekly

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2015 February 4 - 10 [POLITICS]

State subsidy for political parties leads to misuse of public funds: tax news weekly

A weekly newspaper providing tax information to small business owners severely criticized state subsidies to political parties for allowing politicians to use tax money for their private use and called for the abolition of the subsidy system.

The February 2 issue of Nouzei Tsushin (tax information service) argues that political parties are using the governmental financial support for a wide range of expenses, including for expenses incurred at night clubs and bars.

The newspaper points out that after a political party headquarters redistributes the subsidy money to political fund management organizations of its member parliamentarians, they are exempted from accounting for the money spent. As a result, taxpayers have no idea how it is used.

Citing an Akahata report that Dietmembers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party “donated” the subsidy they had received to themselves, Nouzei Tsushin stresses that this fact reveals the real nature of the funding system.

The newspaper drew an analogy between parties’ dependence on the subsidy and drug addiction, adding that the most effective treatment for addiction is to keep addicts away from drugs. Political parties should demonstrate their ability to cleanse themselves, the newspaper concluded.

The Japanese Communist Party has refused to accept the state subsidy to political parties since the subsidy system was introduced in 1995 and has submitted to the current session of the Diet a bill to abolish the subsidy system.


Past related articles
> JCP submits bill to abolish state subsidy for political parties [January 27, 2015]
> LDP Dietmembers accumulate political party subsidies [January 14, 2015]