Japan Press Weekly

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2011 December 21 - 2012 January 5 [POLITICS]

Political parties except JCP receive gov’t subsidies even in this year of disaster

Nine political parties, including the Democratic, the Liberal Democratic, the Komei, and the Social Democratic parties, on December 20 received this year’s final installment of government subsidies. The Japanese Communist Party refused to accept it.

The total amount that the nine parties received this time was almost 8 billion yen.

The government subsidies are distributed to political parties in four installments in April, July, October, and December every year. After the 3.11 disaster, public opinion was aroused demanding that the budget for subsidizing political parties be used for post-disaster reconstruction instead. However, the nine parties turned their back on this public demand and accepted the subsidy payments each time.

This year, the government dispersed to the DPJ 16.82 billion yen, the LDP 10.11 billion, Komei 2.27 billion, the Your Party 1.11 billion, the SDP 762.3 million, the People’s New Party 395.71 million, the New Party Nippon 196.59 million, the New Renaissance Party 135.74 million, and the Sunrise Party of Japan 119.41 million.

The JCP has always refused to accept the government subsidy and calls for abolishing the subsidy system on the grounds that it violates people’s freedom of thought and creed under the Japanese Constitution.