Photo/Illutration Liberal Democratic Party members discuss proposals for revising the Political Fund Control Law on April 23 at the party’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Nagatacho district. (Takeshi Iwashita)

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on April 23 released its proposals for revising the Political Fund Control Law to prevent a repeat of the unreported funds scandal, but a number of criticisms remain unaddressed.

One recommendation is requiring “letters of confirmation” to show that political fund balance reports of political organizations have been properly prepared.

Furthermore, if accounting officials are punished for misstatements or other discrepancies in such reports, their lawmaker bosses would also be punished, with their civil rights suspended.

The LDP was initially reluctant to compile the proposals, particularly on the “guilty-by-association” system that would hold politicians responsible for the actions of accounting officials.

But the stance changed in response to heavy criticism from both within and outside the party.

In the scandal, LDP factions returned to individual lawmakers sums of money they had gained through ticket sales for faction fund-raising events. This money was not reported as income or revenue in their political fund reports.

Many of the dozens of lawmakers involved said they were unaware the funds were not listed, essentially putting all of the blame on the accounting officials.

Most of the unlisted funds came in the Abe faction, but only three Abe faction lawmakers who received considerably large “refunds” and a faction official in charge of accounting were charged in the case.

Criticism that politicians had evaded their responsibility grew.

To clarify oversight responsibility of lawmakers, the LDP proposal requires them to issue the letters of confirmation after checking the fund reports prepared by accountant officials. The officials would also be required to submit the reports and the written confirmations.

The LDP proposals also included a mechanism to make it easier to hold lawmakers responsible if the accounting officials are found guilty of making false statements in the reports.

However, this proposal stated that politicians would face penalties and lose their civil rights over such falsified reports only if they had issued letters of confirmation without sufficient checks.

The proposal did not indicate the specific manner in which the confirmation would be carried out.

Regarding external audits of fund reports, the current policy covers only expenditures of political organizations related to Diet members.

The LDP proposals state that income will be added to the list.

However, the proposals did not include the establishment of a third-party organization, which opposition parties have been calling for to ensure the audits are thorough.

Calls have long been made for drastic political reform and measures to close loopholes in the Political Fund Control Law.

The LDP proposals did not address some of these criticisms.

For example, the party did not propose a ban on donations from corporations and organizations. And it did not require disclosure on the use of policy activity funds, which currently do not need to be reported.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida aims to revise the law during the current Diet session.

But talks are expected to be difficult because of the gap between the LDP’s proposal and those of its junior coalition partner, Komeito, and opposition parties.

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