November 5, 2011
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2011 November 2 - 8 [POLITICS]
FY 2012 subsidies to political parties will be increased |
Demand that the subsidies to political parties be used to fund reconstruction from the disaster has been rejected. Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko insisted on the need of the subsidies to parties as they “have a great bearing on developing democracy.”
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in its FY 2012 budget request appropriated 32 billion yen for the subsidies, an increase of 72 million yen from FY 2011.
The FY 2012 increase in the subsidies is based on the 2010 national census results which showed an increase of about 288,000 in the total population from the 2005 census. The calculated total sum of 32 billion yen for subsidies to political parties will be maintained till the next census comes out in 2016, irrespective of actual yearly changes in population.
Subsidies to political parties are funded from general tax revenues. The total sum of subsidies to be annually granted to political parties that applied for subsidies is calculated on the basis of the total national population census taken every fifth year multiplied by 250 yen per person.
Every Japanese from babies to the elderly is formally required to “donate” 250 yen to political parties. The system of the state subsidizing political parties is a breach of constitutional freedom of thought and creed.
The Democratic Party of Japan, the Liberal Democratic, and the Komei parties hint at the need for Dietmembers to “bear the pain,” but they are more than ready to receive the increased sum.
In a news commentary program broadcast by TV Asahi on November 1, anchorperson Furutate Ichiro commented, “A subsidy of 32 billion yen will go to political parties (except the JCP). How to cut these subsidies must precede any talk of a tax increase.”
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