Japan Press Weekly

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2022 May 25 - 31 [POLITICS]

JCP submits bill to eliminate corporate/organizational donations to political parties

The Japanese Communist Party on May 23 submitted to the House of Councilors a bill to put a full stop to donations from corporations and organizations to political parties.

At a press conference after the submission, JCP Upper House member Inoue Satoshi pointed out that although the system to grant subsidies to political parties was introduced under the pretext of eliminating political donations from corporations and organizations, the elimination has yet to be achieved. “This situation has led to not only political corruption but also the deterioration in the ethical dimensions of political parties,” Inoue said. He added, “To abolish corporate and organizational donations in tandem with state subsidies to political parties is the way to eradicate money politics.”

Regarding the system to subsidize political parties, the JCP already submitted a bill to abolish the system to the House of Councilors in February.

Major proposals in the bill to ban political donations from corporations and organizations are:

Total ban on political donations and purchase of fund-raising party tickets by corporations and organizations
- banning corporations and organizations from making political donations; and
- banning corporations and organizations from purchasing tickets for politicians’ fund-raising parties as revenues from fund-raising parties in essence political donations.

Imposition of heavier supervisory responsibility on political organization representative
- imposing on a political organization’s head responsibilities to oversee the treasury and the administration of his/her organization.

Lowering upper limit of individual donations and ban on ‘specific forms of donations’
- halving the ceiling on the amount of donations from private individuals to political parties and their political fund management bodies from the current 20 million yen per year;
- halving the ceiling on the amount of individual donations to political organizations other than political parties and their fund management bodies from the current 10 million yen a year; and
- deleting from the current law provisions allowing candidates for public office to make “specific forms of donations” to their own political fund management organizations with the use of money given from their political parties to support campaign activities.

The bill also proposes to toughen penalties for lawbreakers.

Past related article:
> JCP submits bill to abolish gov't subsidies to political parties [February 5, 2022]