Japan Parties Still Apart over Corporate Donation Rules

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:03 JST, March 30, 2025

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japanese political parties remain at odds over a review of rules on political donations by corporations and other organizations, with the standoff likely to continue into April and later in the lead-up to this summer’s election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament.

Although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, also head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has pledged that he will achieve a conclusion on the matter by the end of March, it is almost impossible for parties to reach an agreement by the deadline.

The LDP remains eager to continue allowing donations from companies and other organizations, while the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and others want to ban them in principle.

Negotiations are likely to be centered around a proposal drawn up jointly by Komeito, the junior member of the ruling bloc, and the opposition Democratic Party for the People. The proposal calls for tougher restrictions on donations.

“We will not give up until the end of March in urging the DPFP to join the ranks of the opposition,” CDPJ chief Yoshihiko Noda told a press conference Friday. The CDPJ and Japan Innovation Party, another major opposition party, have sought to pass in parliament a bill that bans donations from companies and other organizations in principle, but they have been unable to secure majority support.

In the ongoing regular parliamentary session, the LDP has submitted a bill that maintains corporate and group donations while boosting transparency. The CDPJ, the JIP, Sanseito, the Social Democratic Party and another parliamentary group have submitted a bill that bans such donations in principle.

The Special Committee on Political Reform in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, is set to continue deliberations Monday, the final day of March. But no voting schedule has been set, making it virtually impossible for the matter to be resolved within the month.

How to deal with the Komeito-DPFP proposal will likely be the focus going forward. Working-level officials from the two parties and the LDP agreed Friday not to seek a ban on donations, and they plan to continue talks next week to find more common ground.

Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi of the LDP called on the CDPJ to join the talks.

Some in the CDPJ have called for making compromises to the Komeito-DPFP plan, in order to break the deadlock among the three proposals. But Noda told reporters in the city of Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, on Saturday that his party is committed to seeking a ban on corporate and group donations.

JIP co-chief Seiji Maehara said that his party “sticks to its call for a ban.” Both the CDPJ and the JIP are finding it difficult to make easy concessions ahead of the Upper House election.

“It is necessary for the LDP, CDPJ, JIP and others to agree, with our proposal serving as the basis,” Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito told reporters in the city of Minamikyushu, Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Saturday.

Saito said that Komeito will carefully work on seeking consensus among all parties, but none of them have found a way to bridge the gaps yet.