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The political funds system is common ground shared by all political parties, and it should not be decided based merely on whether it is advantageous or disadvantageous to themselves. The ruling and opposition parties need to debate the issue sincerely and hasten to build a consensus.
The political funds system is common ground shared by all political parties, and it should not be decided based merely on whether it is advantageous or disadvantageous to themselves. The ruling and opposition parties need to debate the issue sincerely and hasten to build a consensus.
The end of March has passed. It was the deadline for the ruling and opposition parties to reach a conclusion on the revision of rules for political donations from corporations and organizations.
The three parties — the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and the Democratic Party for the People — have agreed to keep corporate and organizational political donations in place and to require political parties and their branches to submit political funds reports online as a condition for receiving the funds.
Although the three parties have divergent views on the maximum amount of donations, there is a possibility that the law may be amended in the current Diet session, depending on future discussions among them.
On the other hand, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japan Innovation Party and others have jointly submitted a bill to the Diet to ban corporate and organizational political donations, claiming that they have become a “breeding ground for money-driven corruption.”
This bill, however, exempted donations from political organizations created by corporations or labor unions from the ban. This is because some CDPJ lawmakers receive donations from political organizations formed by labor unions. However, many see the exemption as a loophole.
Even if donations by corporations and organizations were to be prohibited, their executives can still donate as individuals. In such a case, the names of their companies and other information would not be disclosed, which could make such donations even more opaque.
There is concern that restricting the means of fundraising could increase reliance on subsidies provided to political parties. It cannot be said to be healthy for political parties to be entirely funded by tax money.
What is the basis for the claim that corporate donations distort politics? If donations are made by certain wealthy individuals, are they not distorting politics? It has become difficult to find points of agreement because political parties try to avoid such basic discussions and compete over their stances on reform.
In the first place, these political reforms were triggered by an incident involving political fundraising parties held by LDP factions. The incident has nothing directly to do with corporate and organizational political donations. Nevertheless, the CDPJ and others are clinging to this issue. It is unavoidable to suppose that, by doing so, they are aiming to shake up the LDP with this summer’s House of Councillors election in mind.
The LDP, on the other hand, insists that corporate and organizational political donations should continue, saying corporations and organizations are part of society just like individuals, and they have the freedom to support specific political parties. Corporate donations were also recognized by a Supreme Court ruling in 1970.
It is inevitable that political activities require a certain amount of money. It would be realistic to increase the transparency of political funds and ensure the disclosure of information.
Whenever problems pertaining to the connection between politics and money have come to light, the ruling and opposition parties have tightened regulations on political funds. However, there has been no end to such scandals. What is being tested is Diet members’ awareness of abiding by the law.
