Money and politics--dirtier, not cleaner

It seems that the debate on money contributions to politicians is likely to end in an apparently minor, but in reality very significant, defeat.

Given the recent spate of bribery scandals one might have expected tougher disclosure requirements and tighter limits on contributions to be on the table, but no; the focus of the debate has been on a proposal from the LDP to increase the level above which contributors' names are disclosed, to JPY240,000-300,000 per year from the current JPY50,000. It now looks as if the opposition parties, including the Komeito--which had most vocally opposed the idea--have agreed to the LDP's compromise proposal that monthly (party?) "membership fees" up to a limit of JPY20,000 be exempt from disclosure. The LDP's argument, that someone paying a sum of JPY240,000 in monthly installments is unlikely to be after political favours, is on the face of it a plausible one--until one considers how the smarter operators pay their bribes.

Recent scandals have focused on sizeable lump-sum payments from an individual; but consider what happens when a company president has all his or her employees contribute a sum below the disclosure limit, a practice which is absolutely unregulated and certainly not uncommon.

The amount that can be contributed per year quintuples.

Reference: Japanese article from Asahi.com