Photo/Illutration Tsuyoshi Takagi, right, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Diet Affairs Committee, meets on Nov. 18 with Takashi Endo, his counterpart in Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party). (Koichi Ueda)

An agreement between major political parties to resolve a seemingly obvious problem concerning the so-called second salary of lawmakers faces legal hurdles and heightened questions about the use and actual necessity of the payments.

On top of their regular salaries, members of both Diet houses receive a monthly lump-sum payment of 1 million yen ($8,700) as an allowance for communications, transportation and miscellaneous accommodation expenses.

These payments have generated public outrage because rookie lawmakers elected in the Oct. 31 Lower House election received the full allowance for only one day of service.

Politicians who returned to the Diet in the election were also paid the full amount, as were re-elected incumbents who worked for only half a month because the Lower House was dissolved on Oct. 14.

Officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan agreed on Nov. 18 to take action to prevent a recurrence at the extraordinary Diet session to be convened in December.

They said they would attempt to revise the law covering salaries of Diet members to allow for daily prorating of the allowance if lawmakers do not work an entire month.

Daily prorating became possible under a 2010 legal revision that came about following a similar uproar in 2009, when Lower House members received their full monthly salaries despite effectively working for only two days.

But at that time, nothing was done about the allowance.

The CDP wants the legal revision to include a provision that forces rookie lawmakers as well as those who returned to the Diet in the Oct. 31 election to return the amount they received for the month.

However, returning the money to the government would constitute a “donation” from lawmakers, an act prohibited by the Public Offices Election Law.

That means another legal revision would be required to allow for a one-time exemption on the return of the allowance.

Moreover, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) wants an even stiffer provision that would require lawmakers to submit receipts to show how they spent the allowance and to return any unspent money.

Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, the Nippon Ishin leader, criticized the agreement reached by the LDP and CDP as failing to address the fundamental problem with the allowance: the vagueness over how it can be used.

Nippon Ishin officials said they would insist during Diet deliberations that the filing of receipts for the allowance be made mandatory.

Another rather important question is whether the allowance is really needed.

The spreading use of the internet has reduced communications expenses.

As for transportation costs, Diet members already enjoy the privilege of riding on Shinkansen bullet trains for free, and they also receive up to four free round-trip plane tickets every month to return to their constituencies from Tokyo.

LDP lawmakers admitted that the allowance was used to pay for a wide range of expenses, especially by younger lawmakers who may be strapped for cash.

(This article was compiled from reports by Issei Sakakibara, Hideki Kitami and Narumi Ota.)

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