December 24, 2025

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

In both the last House of Councillors election and the 2024 general election, voters delivered a severe verdict in regard to the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush-fund scandals. However, the issue of imposing a ban on corporate and organizational political donations, the root cause for the slush-fund allegations, was shelved due to resistance from the LDP and its supplementary forces.

The Japanese Communist Party has firmly called for introducing a total ban on political donations from corporations and organizations. In the last ordinary session of the Diet, the JCP, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and the “Nippon Ishin no Kai” party agreed to work together on the issue of political donations, making significant progress toward their prohibition.

In contrast, the Democratic Party for the People and the “Komeito” party in the extraordinary ordinary Diet session which closed on December 17, submitted a bill designed to prohibit political party branches from receiving political contributions. CDPJ head Noda Yoshihiko, in a face-to-face debate with Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, expressed his support for the DPP-Komei proposed bill.

The Ishin party stepped away from its established stance and formed a coalition government with the LDP.

Under the government led by PM Takaichi, “politics and money” scandals continue to erupt.

It has come to light that LDP branches headed by PM Takaichi and Defense Minister Koizumi Shinjiro received political donations exceeding the legal upper limit set under the Political Funds Control Act.

The law prohibits endowments from companies and other groups to individual politicians while allowing a political party branch presided by a politician as branch head to accept political contributions. This has been used as a loophole to make political donations to politician themselves.

Whenever money-power corruption involving the LDP arises, legislative measures restricting corporate and organizational donations have been introduced. Each time, the LDP has created a loophole with the aim of preserving the practice of accepting political donations from corporations and other special interest group organizations.

It is unacceptable for corporate and organizational political donations to continue as they are the root cause of political corruption. Now is the time to close two loopholes: purchase of fundraising party tickets and donations to political party headquarters and branches, and to take the step toward a total ban.