Japan Press Weekly

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2013 January 16 - 22 [POLITICS]

Party subsidies spoil political parties

The Internal Affairs Ministry on January 17 announced the names of political parties that applied for government subsidies for political parties in 2013. Those are 10 parties other than the Japanese Communist Party, including the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Party of Japan, and Japan Restoration Party.

The amount of the subsidies comes to about 32 billion yen a year. The public funding system has been criticized as unconstitutional because it forcibly imposes a 250 yen tax on every person regardless of which party he/she supports, and distributes the taxpayers’ money among political parties. The Japanese Communist Party, the only party having refused to accept the money, has consistently demanded the abolition of the system since its inception.

The grant to each party is calculated based on the number of the party’s lawmakers as of January 1 every year as well as how many votes it obtained in recent national elections (the latest Lower House election and past two Upper House elections). Each party receives the subsidies quarterly.

A huge amount of money, totaling 567.7 billion yen, has been granted to parties for the last 18 years since the Political Party Grant Law came into force in 1995.

The funding system plays a key role in corrupting political parties through encouraging politicians to constantly change their factions to obtain the subsidies.

Related past article
> Political subsidies amount to Y567.7 billion for 18 years [January 9, 2013]