Japan Press Weekly

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2024 November 27 - December 3 TOP3 [POLITICS]

JCP submits bills to ban corporate political donations and abolish political party subsidies

The Japanese Communist Party on November 28 submitted two bills to the House of Councilors to impose a total ban on political donations from corporations and interest organizations and abolish the Political Party Subsidies Act.

The former bill would prohibit business establishments and other interest groups from making political donations and purchasing political fundraiser tickets since the proceeds from ticket sales constitute corporate political donations.

The bill would also prohibit “policy activity expenses” donated by political parties to individual lawmakers with which they do not have to obtain receipts or disclose for what purpose the money was used.

The Liberal Democratic Party has created a new interpretation in order to claim that “policy activity expenses” are “expenditures” of political parties, not “donations” from political parties to politicians. In order to prevent such evasions, the bill would forbid the “expenditure” of expenses by way of “advance money”. This is the money that is given in advance to individual politicians from political parties, regardless of how it is used or how much is spent, and that does not require reimbursement at a later date.

The latter bill would abolish the system of government subsidies to political parties as it forces people to make a mandatory donation of 250 yen each in violation of people’s constitutional rights to “freedom of thought and conscience” and “freedom to decide their political support”.

After submitting the two bills, Secretary General of the JCP House of Councilors members Inoue Satoshi at a press conference criticized the LDP for still turning its back on the ban on corporate and organizational political donations although it encountered significant public anger over its slush-fund allegations which resulted in the failure to secure a ruling majority of seats in the Lower House in the last general election.

Inoue said, “The key to political reform is the prohibition of political donations given by for-profit entities. That is why we have submitted these two bills.”