Japan Press Weekly

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2014 August 27 - September 2 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Keidanren member corporations will resume political donations to LDP

The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) is planning to resume its former policy to encourage its member corporations to provide political donations to the Liberal Democratic Party to promote their business interests.

The influential business organization will officially decide on this policy next month, Akahata on August 28 reported.

Sakakibara Sadayuki, who became the Keidanren chairman in June, calls for the strengthening of cooperation with the LDP as a means to put further pressure on the government to provide more benefits to the business sector. The resumption of political donations is a pending issue he took over from his predecessor Yonekura Hiromasa.

Keidanren demands that the government take pro-corporate policies such as to further cut corporate taxes, promptly reactivate nuclear power generation, maintain the plan to increase the consumption tax rate to 10%, and improve the “efficiency” of the country’s social security system.

In response to public criticism against the cozy ties between politicians and business entities, Keidanren in 1993 suspended its practice of urging its member companies to meet their political donation quotas.

In 2004, it began evaluating the policies of the LDP and the Democratic Party of Japan on a 5-point scale as a reference for member corporations to decide on the amount of donations to be made. Under the DPJ government between 2009 and 2012, Keidanren stopped issuing a “report card”. After the LDP made a comeback to power in December 2012, the business lobby again began making evaluations of LDP policies in order to increase its influence on the LDP government.