Revised Political Funds Control Law Reform Bill Passes Committee; Nippon Ishin Support Secured After Revisions By LDP

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:01 JST, June 5, 2024

The House of Representatives’ Special Committee on Political Reform on Wednesday passed a new bill to revise the Political Funds Control Law with votes for from the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party).

The special committee, which exists to discuss reforms in the wake of a series of scandals over violations of the law by some LDP factions, voted on the bill after the LDP submitted it for a second time, having withdrawn and revised an earlier version.

The revised bill seems likely to be passed through the lower house on Thursday, when a vote on it will be held during a plenary session.

In the new bill, some language in the previous version submitted by the LDP, concerning the disclosure of how policy activity expenses which political parties distribute to member lawmakers are used, has been removed. For example, a clause setting a ¥500,000 threshold for expenditures to be disclosed was deleted.

The LDP resubmitted the revised bill to the lower house on Wednesday morning.

At Ishin’s demand, receipts for expenditures of ¥500,000 or less will also be disclosed after 10 years.

After the LDP submitted the revised bill, Ishin withdrew its own bill which had been submitted to the lower house.

Keisuke Suzuki, an LDP member of the special committee, explained the revised bill at a meeting of the committee in the morning on Wednesday: “We reexamined the bill so that we can set up a more appropriate system.”