June 3, 2015
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2015 June 3 - 9 [POLITICS]
War industry doubled donations to LDP bringing about lifting of ban on arms export |
At a meeting of the House of Councilors Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on June 2, Inoue presented a listing of political donations the LDP’s political funds organization received from nine corporations: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., NEC Corporation, IHI Corporation, Fujitsu Ltd., Komatsu Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, and Hitachi, Ltd.
They are nine of the top ten companies in terms of the value of contracts awarded by the Defense Ministry in 2013. The remaining one, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation, made donations through its industrial group, the Petroleum Association of Japan.
The JCP lawmaker pointed out that the nine corporations dramatically increased the amount of donations to the LDP to a total of 150.7 million yen in 2013 from 81.1 million yen in the previous year when the LDP was out of power.
Noting that the Abe government has been supporting the munitions industry by promoting weapons exports and by increasing the defense budget, Inoue stressed that taxpayers should consider the donations as investments aiming for financial gains. He demanded that the LDP stop accepting these political donations.
In addition, Inoue revealed that 64 former officials of the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces were awarded positions with the above-mentioned ten companies in 2014. The JCP lawmaker argued that these cozy ties that involve conflicts of interest should be cut.
Past related articles:
> Abe wants to export more arms by establishing an additional defense-related agency [May 19 & 26, 2015]
> Defense Ministry discussing ways to fund foreign governments’ purchase of Japan-made weapons [April 8, 2015]
> JCP Inoue criticizes military-centered supplementary budget bill [January 29, 2015]
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