Nippon Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, is moving toward the resumption of donations to political parties. As a preliminary step, the organization has published a report evaluating key policies of the two largest parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan. The "grade report" is expected to serve as a guide for member corporations in deciding which party to help, or not to help.
Opponents of corporate donations criticize Keidanren, the nation's largest business lobby, for trying again to "buy policy with money." The criticism is predictable given a series of money scandals that have poisoned relations between politics and business. The list includes the Lockheed payoff scandal of the 1970s to the early '80s, which led to the conviction of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, and the stock-for-favors Recruit case, which caused the Cabinet of the late Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita to resign in 1989.
However, there also is a positive aspect to Keidanren's move to restart donations: It intends to link them to policy in a transparent manner. Publication of the policy evaluation of the LDP and the DPJ -- the likely contenders in the hoped-for two-party system -- is also designed to stimulate policy debate.