Political Reform Loses Momentum

The momentum for reform of political funds is significantly lost in current session of the Diet. While opposition parties submitted a bill for restricting political donation from companies or organizations to parties, the leading coalition by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japan Innovation Party (JIP) does not show willingness to implement more transparent politics. A scandal over inappropriate donation to Takaichi does not make a major difference in Diet discussion. 

The slush fund scandal in factions of LDP ignited discussion for making party politics more transparent. The opposition parties demanded complete prohibition of donation from private companies or organizations such as labor union to political parties. The LDP has been highly reluctant to abolish them, arguing that the abolition may obstruct people’s participation to politics.

 

The Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) and Democratic Party for the People (DPP) cosponsored a bill to restrict donations from companies and organizations in March. The bill proposes limiting the parties to accept those donations to one branch in each prefecture all over Japan. This bill will reduce the local offices of LDP, which can accept those donations, from 7,000 to less than 50.

 

In the last session of the Diet, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) submitted a bill with Japan Communist Party which would prohibit a party to receive any donation from companies and organizations. Komeito cosponsored another bill with the DPP that would reduce offices to receive donations. As CDPJ and Komeito merged in the Lower House in January, the CRA decided to pick the bill by Komeito and the DPP to promote further transparency in political donations.

 

The LDP and JIP showed no interest in the bill. When they formed the leading coalition in October 2025, both parties have agreed on postponing conclusion on this issue until fall 2027. The momentum of JIP for political reform was significantly slowed down by forming the leading coalition with the LDP. The LDP has been focusing on transparency of donations, rather than prohibition, but it represented LDP’s reluctancy to a reform that may erode its financial resource.

 

As the LDP delays concluding the reform in political donations, it was reported that a religious corporation donated 30 million yen to an LDP branch in Nara prefecture in 2024, which representative is Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. WhileMainichi Shimbun made a research on the corporation to know whether it had been qualified for that amount of the donation, the corporation rejected to disclose information about it.

 

This episode indicates Takaichi’s negative attitude on transparency for her political funds. After achieving a sweeping victory in the Lower House election in February, Takaichi and the LDP looks like thinking that they received an endorsement from voters on their management of political funds, which faced harsh criticisms only a few years ago. It is likely that the LDP will not seriously take this issue until the party will be trapped in next major scandal.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more

Defense Ministers Meet in Seoul

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...
Read more