THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
June 14, 2022 at 16:52 JST
Lawmakers meet in February to discuss revising the monthly allowance system often called their “second salary.” (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Ruling party lawmakers for some reason declined to discuss legislation that would force them to reveal how they are spending 1 million yen ($7,400) in a monthly allowance called the “second salary” of Diet members.
The current Diet session is scheduled to end on June 15.
A high-ranking lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said there was not enough time to pass legislation during the session to define what the allowance can be spent for and to require lawmakers to disclose reports of how they used the money.
Opposition lawmakers vowed to hammer away at the LDP on the issue in the Upper House election next month.
“This will only increase public distrust of political organizations,” Takashi Endo, chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), said on June 13.
Ichiro Matsui, Nippon Ishin head, has described the allowance as the most egregious form of vested interest because only lawmakers can pay for various expenses without submitting receipts.
But not all opposition parties were as critical as Nippon Ishin or the Japanese Communist Party.
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan only said that no conclusion had been reached on the issue.
The allowance was introduced to help lawmakers pay for transportation, communication and miscellaneous accommodation expenses. But the money now covers study, research, public affairs and miscellaneous accommodation expenses.
Diet members are not required to keep receipts for the expenses or records on how the money is used. And they are not required to return any unspent amount.
An opposition lawmaker suggested that the eagerness to revise the law concerning the allowance dwindled in April, when a legal revision changed the formal name of the allowance.
The revision also addressed the public outrage that emerged after lawmakers elected in the October 2021 Lower House election received the full allowance for working just one day that month.
The change established a system of daily prorating the allowance when lawmakers only serve for part of a month.
But no agreement was reached on what the money could be used for, with the exception that all sides agreed the money should not be used for campaigning.
(This article was written by Yuta Kayaba and Taro Kotegawa.)
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