In October we talked about how national assembly members' pay was going back to normal after six months of pay cuts in the wake of the March disaster. At the same time, the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda failed in its attempt to cut civil servant pay by 7.8 percent because Rengo, the union federation that represents government workers, demanded reinstatement of collective bargaining rights as a concession, which the opposition Liberal Democratic Party wouldn't go for, so the measure was defeated in the Diet. Because Noda's ruling Democratic Party of Japan was pushing for the 7.8 percent cut it postponed the voluntary 0.23 percent cut proposed by the National Personnel Authority, so in the end bureaucrats are getting paid the same amount they've always been paid. Actually, they're getting even more since last week they received bonuses that on average are 4.1 percent higher than they were last year.

The government pay situation is a huge PR problem for the administration, since it's about to ask the public to accept a tax increase to pay for reconstruction. To put things in the proper perspective, the basic monthly salary for a Diet member is ¥1,294,000 and his/her yearly bonus amounts to ¥5,530,000. According to the national tax agency, the average salaryman working for a private company in Japan earned ¥295,000 a month in 2010, and received yearly bonuses of ¥580,000. So on an annual basis, a national politician receives more than ¥21 million and a salaryman a little more than ¥4 million.

But there's more. Each lawmaker is allowed ¥1 million a month for tsushin kotsu taizai-hi (communications, transportation and lodging expenses). This allowance is supposed to be spent on anything having to do with sending documents to or communicating with constituents on matters of a "public nature," which basically describes anything a politician does. However, lawmakers are not required to submit receipts showing how they spent this money, so that's an extra ¥12 million a year, tax-free.