Photo/Illutration Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi, second from right, and his Komeito counterpart, Keiichi Ishii, second from left, display their policy agreement on May 9. (Takeshi Iwashita)

The ruling coalition agreed on a “summary” of revisions to the Political Fund Control Law in response to a political funding scandal, but tellingly the policy document lacked specifics on contentious issues.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is keen to address public criticism that has dogged it since late last year over slush funds accumulated by party factions and later distributed to members.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, already battling low ratings in public opinion polls, vowed to revise the Political Fund Control Law in the current Diet session to regain public trust.

Opposition parties wasted no time in blasting away at the latest proposal, calling it woefully insufficient.

For one thing, the proposal says nothing about a ban on donations from companies and organizations, which the opposition camp is insisting on.

Junior coalition partner Komeito had been pushing the LDP to show greater flexibility but was thwarted in two key areas.

One is the extent of public disclosure.

This involves “policy activity fees” doled out by parties to those in executive positions.

The LDP was prepared only to disclose categories for which money is given to party executives. But Komeito argued that those who receive such funding should be obliged to issue a report about how the money is used.

While the LDP eventually agreed to this condition, it fought tooth and nail to limit the extent to which spending is made public and whether to disclose the names of individuals or organizations that receive funds from the party executive.

The LDP and Komeito also were unable to agree on an appropriate standard for disclosing ticket purchases to fund-raising parties as well as the names of those doing so.

Komeito proposed that anyone who purchases at least 50,000 yen ($320) in tickets have their identity revealed. The current legal standard is 200,000 yen.

But the LDP insisted that disclosure only be required for those purchasing at least 100,000-yen worth of tickets. A major concern within the LDP is that setting the standard too low might make companies hesitant about purchasing the tickets if their identities are bandied about.

The two parties agreed to further discuss what the disclosure standard should be, but that does not mean agreement is certain to be reached.

However, the two parties did agree to strengthen disclosure rules in matters concerning “other political organizations,” which have looser regulations now in comparison to entities linked with Diet members. The agreement calls for disclosure any time such a political organization receives or spends at least 10 million yen over the course of a year.

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