Japan Press Weekly

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2012 November 28 - December 4 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

DPJ & LDP receive NPP-related donations after Fukushima accident

It has been brought to light that the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) received donations amounting to 600 million yen from companies and trade unions related to the nuclear power industry during the year of 2011, even after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

Akahata reported this fact on December 1, pointing out that the 600 million yen were mostly contributions made after the accident.

According to national and local government reports on political funds in 2011, the LDP received 331.4 million yen in political donations from 57 corporations affiliated with the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF).

General construction contractors such as Kajima Corporation, which received the contracts for installing covers over the crippled reactor buildings at the Fukushima plant and for decontamination work, contributed to the party in April and May last year, soon after the accident happened.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toshiba Corporation, which won the contracts for nuclear power plants’ stress tests the government introduced as means to reactivate NPPs, made donations to the LDP after those tests started in the summer of 2011.

The DPJ received a total of 249.5 million yen during the same period from labor unions affiliated with the Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Worker’s Unions of Japan. That federation, which is also a member of the JAIF, has demanded the resumption of idled nuclear reactors in the country, saying that nuclear power generation is “indispensable for stable power supplies”.

The union of Chubu Electric Power Co. which runs the Hamaoka NPP in Shizuoka Prefecture purchased tickets to fund-raising parties of seven DPJ Dietmembers for 1.26 million yen. It includes 260,000 yen for the fund-raising party hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Okada Katsuya.