Japan Press Weekly

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2007 October 10 - 16 [POLITICS]

20 major corporations donated 110 million yen to LDP while receiving government subsidies

Akahata has learned that 20 major corporations gave donations of a total of more than 110 million yen to the Liberal Democratic Party and two million yen to the Democratic Party last year, while receiving government subsidies for their projects to fight global warming and develop new energies.

This amounts to siphoning off tax money to support political parties. These donations are suspected of violating the Political Funds Control Law which prohibits corporations from making political donations within one year after they receive government subsidies.

Those donors include Toyota Motor Corporation that made donations of 64.4 million yen, Hino Motors Ltd. (18.1 million yen), Oji Paper Co., Ltd. (11 million yen), Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. (5 million yen), and Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. (1.72 million yen).

Daiwa House Industry received 440 million yen in government subsidies for its project of constructing nine wind power stations and Matsushita Electric Works received 110 million yen for its business incubation project to tackle global warming. As “eco-businesses,” those projects are expected to yield profits.

Life insurance companies criticized for mismanagement donated 215 million yen to LDP

Akahata has learned that four leading life insurance companies that are under fire for their failure to pay policy holders due benefits gave the LDP about 215 million yen in donations since 2001.

The Nippon Life Insurance Company that made 76 million yen topped the list, followed by the Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company (51.9 million yen), Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company (46 million yen), and Sumitomo Life Insurance Company (41.5 million yen).

Even after the Financial Services Agency in February 2005 ordered Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company to suspend its business on its policy contracts that violated the Insurance Business Law, the four companies have continued making political donations.

The amount of due benefit that 38 life insurance companies have identified as unpaid has reached about 91 billion yen (1.2 million cases). Among them, about 59.7 billion yen (726,000 cases), that account for 65 percent of the total, were made by the four leading companies.