EDITORIAL: Political donations

Leading business organizations have made important moves toward elimination of political donations by companies and other organizations. What is needed now is a political decision.

Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) has decided to stop encouraging political donations by companies and organizations.

The decision has been prompted by two developments. First, the Liberal Democratic Party, which Keidanren has supported for decades, has been ousted from power.

Second, the power of money in politics has become an even more important political issue due to some new scandals.

Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), another major business body, has proposed a ban on political contributions by companies and organizations.

For a long time, the business community has pumped huge amounts of money into politics. But the moves of these business lobbies clearly indicate a desire to distance themselves from scandals concerning political funds and to promote a shift toward a system supported mainly by individual donations.

The intimate, all-embracing relationship between some political parties and labor unions has also become an issue that can no longer be ignored.

It is time for parties of both camps to take steps to prohibit political donations by companies and other entities in a nonpartisan effort to lessen public distrust of politics.

Every major money-in-politics scandal in the past led to a review of political donations by businesses.

Keidanren's system to solicit political donations from its members was established in the 1950s, following two massive bribery scandals implicating many politicians. One involved Showa Denko K.K., a major chemical company, and the other the shipping and shipbuilding industries.

In response to these scandals, which were blamed on donations to specific politicians by individual companies, Keidanren created a system in which it served as the sole channel for political contributions by its members. Keidanren determined the amounts of money individual companies should provide.

But the scheme failed to stop the illicit flow of corporate cash into politics.

In 1993, in the wake of a series of corruption scandals including one involving trucking company Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin Co., Keidanren stopped serving as the conduit for corporate donations and ended its involvement in political fund activities.

However, former Toyota Motor Corp. CEO Hiroshi Okuda, who became Keidanren chairman in 2002, revived the organization's role in collecting political donations to increase its influence on government policy.

In 2004, Okuda established a system in which Keidanren urged its members to contribute money to parties according to its assessment of their policy platforms. This led to an increase in corporate donations to parties.

In its manifesto for last year's Lower House election, the Democratic Party of Japan pledged to ban political donations by companies and organizations. And with the DPJ now in power, there is no longer any good reason for corporations to donate to political parties.

It has become difficult for companies to convince shareholders and employees of the need for political donations.

These changes in the political climate are behind the latest moves of the leading business organizations.

Compared with these providers of political funds, politicians have been slow to take action.

Funds scandals involving Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa have again highlighted the role of money in politics. In answering questions at the Diet, Hatoyama has repeatedly acknowledged the need to ban political contributions by companies and organizations.

Yet the ruling camp has been dragging its feet on the submission of a bill to revise the Political Fund Control Law to the Diet. There has been no serious bipartisan debate on the issue, either.

The DPJ promised to shift the focus of policymaking away from the interests of companies and industries to put priority on the people's livelihood. This idea appealed strongly to voters and enabled the party to win a ruling mandate.

Hatoyama will betray the voters if he fails to take a cue from Keidanren's decision to stop playing a role in the flow of money into politics. He should take steps to legislate the proposed ban and create a new political culture in this nation.

We urge both the ruling and opposition parties to immediately accelerate debate on the issue in the ongoing Diet session.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 27