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December 22, 2024
 

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POLITICAL FUNDS

A Lower House committee on political reform deliberates on a revision of the political funds law on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 17, 2024
Bill to abolish funds for political activities clears Lower House
The bill will put a stop to the disbursement of such funds, criticized for their lack of transparency, by parties to their lawmakers.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024
Opening ethics panel hearings to media could allay public suspicions, Ishiba says
Of the 27 scandal-hit Upper House lawmakers willing to face ethics panel hearings, 23 have sought for the sessions to be held behind closed doors.
A projection mapping display illuminates the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building during a tourism promotion event in April.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024
20 LDP Tokyo assembly members underreported fundraising party sales
A similar scandal involving slush funds from unreported fundraising party revenues has plagued LDP parliament members.
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shinjiro Koizumi during a meeting last month in Tokyo
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2024
LDP and opposition far from consensus over corporate donations
At this point, there is no prospect of any bill securing a majority and the focus is on whether parties can compromise with each other and reach an agreement.
The Liberal Democratic Party proposed abolishing the system of political activities funds — criticized as a hotbed for slush funds — and obligating party members to submit balance reports to a publicly accessible online database.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 9, 2024
LDP submits bill banning most political funding but leaves 'loophole'
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hopes to pass the bill this year, but that may not be possible with opposition parties holding out for a further ban on corporate donations.
Political funds reports have shown that Japanese political parties and other lawmakers were keen to utilize social media and the internet for their political activities last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 1, 2024
Social media use rising among politicians: funds reports
Political parties see smartphones and online messaging as a vital way of reaching voters and affecting their voting behavior.
The largest corporate donors to the ruling LDP were Toyota Motor and Sumitomo Chemical, with ¥50 million each.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 30, 2024
LDP received ¥2.4 billion in corporate donations in 2023
The figure is down 1.9% from the previous year, the first decline in three years, according to political funds records released Friday.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers his policy speech at the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 29, 2024
Ishiba sticks to the basics in second policy speech
Rather than expand on his broader vision, Ishiba chose to focus on less-contentious individual policy matters.
In last month’s Lower House election, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who also serves as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, excluded members implicated in a slush funds scandal who refused to attend a Lower House ethics hearing earlier this year from the party’s proportional representation candidates list.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 28, 2024
More scandal-hit LDP lawmakers to attend Upper House ethics hearing
The lawmakers could be at a disadvantage in next summer's Upper House election if they do not attend the hearing.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses a meeting at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters on Thursday to discuss political reform.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 25, 2024
Corporate donations remain sticky point in political reform talks
The opposition wants such donations banned but the ruling coalition maintains that a ban would curtail the political freedom of the private sector.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a Liberal Democratic Party meeting on political reform on Thursday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 22, 2024
LDP approves proposal to ban political activities funds
The ruling party will look to revise the political funds control law by the end of this year.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a news conference during the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 20, 2024
Ishiba vows to conclude talks on policy activity funds soon
The Liberal Democratic Party aims to finalize its draft of a planned revision of the political funds control law on Thursday and begin discussions with other parties.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 15, 2024
LDP eyes larger tax breaks for individual political donations
The move is designed to lower the share of political donations from companies and organizations, which have been subject to public criticism.
The Japanese government and the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party are discussing a plan to set the date for convening an extraordinary session of parliament on Nov. 28.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 14, 2024
Japan eyes extraordinary session of parliament from Nov. 28
The session will be convened to discuss a fiscal 2024 supplementary budget that will finance a planned economic package.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito (left) urged Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to resolve the slush funds scandal during their meeting on Saturday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 14, 2024
Upper House LDP members hope to face ethics panel over scandal
LDP lawmakers in the Lower House are generally opposed to such moves.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (third from left in the front row) posing for a commemorative photo with vice ministers of the second Ishiba Cabinet at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 14, 2024
No scandal-tainted LDP lawmakers appointed to senior government posts
The exclusion of lawmakers involved in the slush fund scandal is apparently aimed at avoiding criticism from the opposition camp and the public.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who doubles as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, speaks at a gathering on the party's political reform plans on Tuesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 12, 2024
Ishiba's minority government begins first day of business with focus on reform
With the ruling coalition no longer having a majority, Ishiba will likely be forced to make significant concessions to the opposition camp.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office will reinvestigate the case against the former secretary of lawmaker Koichi Hagiuda and consider again whether to seek criminal punishment.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 6, 2024
Citizen panel nixes decision not to indict Hagiuda's secretary
The panel said it is unreasonable not to prosecute the secretary in view of the maliciousness of the acts relating to the Liberal Democratic Party's slush funds scandal.
A front page announcement for Hideki Yukawa's Nobel Prize win in the fields of physics informs readers of Japan's first-ever Nobel laureate.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Nov 4, 2024
Japan Times 1949: Yukawa wins Nobel award
Along with Japan receiving its first Nobel Prize 75 years ago, a lengthy write-up on the man who sought to kill the emperor appeared on our front pages.
The Liberal Democratic Party's seats in the House of Representatives fell to 191 from 256 in Sunday's election.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 30, 2024
LDP will likely have a 2.5% cut in its subsidies from the government
The LDP's subsidies are expected to total ¥15.65 billion for the year.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Mother hopes for reunion with daughter ensnared by Tokyo host clubs
The Kabukicho district in Tokyo, where the daughter of a woman in her 60s fell deeply into the host club culture.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.

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