 LDP and DPJ benefit from government subsidy and donations from corporations and lobbying organizations The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 2003 collected larger amounts of money in donations from companies and lobbying organizations than in the previous year. The Public Management Ministry in its official gazette on September 10 published financial reports for 2003 submitted by political parties. The total income of political parties in 2003 was 140.1 billion yen, up 5.1 billion yen (3.8 percent) from the previous year. The total amount of money major parties (except the Japanese Communist Party) received from corporations and lobbying organizations rose 4.56 billion yen to 22.65 billion yen. Commenting on the FY 2003 political funds reports, Ueda Hitoshi, the Japanese Communist Party's financial director, stated: "Use of money power to influence government policies is debasing politics. This is clear from the recent series of scandals involving the illegal donation by the Japan Dental Association's political action (fund raising) organization, and the political party ratings the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) made for determining the amount of money each party receives from corporations in political donations. In this situation, the JCP has a greater role to play in cleansing politics by getting rid of money power politics and corruption because it is the only party that depends on individual voluntary contributions." (end) |