Japan Press Weekly

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2016 April 20 - 26 [POLITICS]

Political parties, with exception of JCP, continue to accept state subsides amid ongoing quake disaster in Kyushu

All eight political parties, with the exception of the Japanese Communist Party, on April 20 received this year’s first instalment of government subsidies amounting to 7,973,000,000 yen, while the ongoing earthquake activity mainly in Kumamoto Prefecture increases hardships on local residents.

The total of 32 billion yen in government subsidies is paid to political parties in quarterly installments.

The JCP has long insisted that a system subsidizing political parties with taxpayers’ money irrespective of what political party they are in favor of should be abolished because it violates people’s freedom of thought and creed and leads to the deterioration of political parties. Never accepting state subsidies, the JCP has submitted to the Diet a bill to abolish the state subsidy system.

In the first installment of government subsidies, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties received 4.3 billion yen and 743 million yen respectively. The amount the Democratic Party received was 2.43 billion yen, the Initiative from Osaka (Osaka Ishin no kai) 121 million yen, the Social Democratic Party 117 million yen, the People’s Life Party 83 million yen, the Party for Japanese Kokoro 140 million yen, and the New Renaissance Party 26 million yen.

Past related article:
> JCP submits bill to abolish state subsidy for political parties [January 27, 2015]