Reluctant to Regulate Political Funds
Showing no regret on disbanding his faction, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appeals his leadership on political reform in Liberal Democratic Party. However, there is one thing which he has been reluctant to implement: disclosing how LDP leaders have used the political fund received from the party. While the opposition parties demanded the disclosure, Kishida did not approve it, raising “freedom of political activities.” The discussion over political ethics in the Diet has not been making any meaningful progress.
Kishida tried to defend political fund, which is called “political activities fund,” distributed from the party to the leaders every year. It has been reported that LDP distributed ¥1.4 billion to fifteen lawmakers in 2022, and former Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai received ¥4.8 billion for five years when he was at the position. The opposition parties target that fund as the basis of secret political fund, because the recipients do not have to disclose to what purpose it was used.
In the discussions of the Committee on Budget in the House of Representatives, Kishida argued that the political activities fund has been on the balance between “freedom of political activities” of politicians and “the right to know” of citizens. Kishida supposedly wanted to say that politicians have the right to exercise political activities without fully disclosing what the fund has been used, even how much the citizens want full transparency of politics.
Kishida raised two reasons of refusing disclosure of political fund. One was that the disclosure would violate privacy of individuals and reveal secret business activities of companies or organizations. Another was to keep strategical secrets of the party from other political rivals or foreign countries. It is possible that LDP is reluctant to disclose who donated how much, because their supporters, mainly local business owners, do not want them.
There raised a possibility of tax evasion in the Diet discussion. The lawmakers with opposite parties asked whether some funds were remaining unused, because tax would be imposed on that unused political fund. The lawmakers need to report the income to the authority of taxation. One of the indicted LDP lawmaker argued that he did not use the political fund and kept in his office for years.
Kishida proposed amending Political Funds Control Act in the current session of the Diet, but he did not tell his idea about the details of the points to be amended. LDP began a survey to all its lawmakers about the involvement of the slush fund scandal. It also submitted the list of lawmakers who had corrected political fund report related to the scandal. However, Kishida seems to be hoping to reform LDP politics without eroding political basis of the party and his position as the top leader.
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