Japan Press Weekly

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2012 November 28 - December 4 [POLITICS]

Parties except JCP depend more than ever on tax money

All political parties except the Japanese Communist Party have increased their financial dependence on public funds, as shown in a report the government published on November 30.

According to the internal affairs ministry’s 2011 political funds report, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan last year received 16.8 billion yen in government subsidy. The amount was 83.2% of the party’s total income, 0.5 points up from the previous year.

In 2011, 75.1% of the Liberal Democratic Party’s total income came from the state fund, increasing by 2.5 points from the year before, as it received 10.1 billion yen from the state fund.

The rate for the Your Party sharply rose from 58.9% in 2010 to 96.8% in 2011.

When the government introduced the subsidy system to political parties in 1994, it pledged to ban corporate and organizational political donations within 5 years. However, no measures have been taken to do so.