Japan Press Weekly

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2014 April 2 - 8 [POLITICS]

Amount of subsidies for political parties announced on same day sales tax rate is increased

On April 1, the day the government forcibly implemented the consumption tax hike, the Internal Affairs Ministry made public the amount of public funding to be granted to political parties in fiscal 2014.

The amount of subsidies allotted to each political party depends on the number of Diet members belonging to the party as of January 1 and the number of votes it garnered in recent national elections. The amount of party subsidies in fiscal 2014 totals about 32.01 billion yen. All parties other than the Japanese Communist Party have stated their intention to receive the grants.

The JCP has consistently refused to receive the taxpayers’ money since the subsidies system was introduced in 1995.

The amount of money to be distributed to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which increased its seats in the Upper House election last July, comes to about 15.78 billion yen, up 4.8% from a year earlier. The largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which lost in that election, is going to obtain some 6.69 billion yen, down 13.9%.

The allotments to other parties are as follows: Japan Restoration Party, 3.29 billion yen; Komei Party (the LDP’s junior coalition partner), 2.6 billion yen; Your Party, 2.01 billion yen; People’s Life Party, 748 million yen; Social Democratic Party, 429 million yen; Unity Party, 348 million yen; and New Renaissance Party, 102 million yen.

Past related article:
> Parties, other than JCP, depend on state subsidies [November 30, 2013]