The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s eleventh-hour decision to make concessions over a bill to enhance the law regulating political funding is unlikely to plug many of the loopholes that render the legislation less than effective.

The revision will not tighten regulations on donations by companies and other organizations. Many of the measures are half-baked, with specific system designs left for future determination, raising doubts about whether they will actually be realized

The Diet should engage in rigorous and meticulous deliberations on the amended bill without rushing to a vote.

In an effort to ensure passage of the bill to rewrite the Political Fund Control Law during the current regular Diet session, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on May 31 met consecutively with Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, and Nobuyuki Baba, the head of the conservative opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), and told them that the LDP would partially accept both parties’ proposals.

The LDP then presented a revised amendment to the bill as a “final response” to the opposition parties’ demands at a meeting of senior members of the Lower House’s ad-hoc committee on political reform.

The LDP also backed down over a proposal to lower the ceiling for disclosing the names in political funding reports of those who purchase tickets to fundraisers.

Until the last moment, the ruling party insisted on setting the threshold at 100,000 yen, but reluctantly abandoned its position in the face of Komeito’s insistence it be lowered to 50,000 yen.

Another step concerned measures aimed at securing transparency in “seisaku katsudo-hi” (policy activity expenses), a loophole that allows political parties to provide funds directly to individual politicians with no legal requirement to disclose how they are used.

The LDP accepted a Nippon Ishin proposal that sets an annual cap on amounts spent and includes a requirement that all related receipts must be made public after 10 years.

However, the LDP stood firm in rejecting a joint opposition demand to ban contributions by businesses and other entities and strengthen the guilt-by-association system for violations of the law.

With these minor concessions, Kishida apparently tried to secure passage of the bill during the current Diet session, which is slated to run through June 23, to deliver on the party’s “public promise” and, at the same time, divide the opposition camp by winning Nippon Ishin’s support for the legislation.

However, it is premature to think the revision to the law will truly bolster the transparency of political funds.

The revised disclosure rule concerning party ticket purchasers, unlike the rule for donations, is based on each purchase amount rather than the annual total. This means that increasing the number of fundraising events allows for raising the same amounts as now without disclosing the names of the ticket purchasers.

With regard to the disclosure of policy activity expenses, all that will be done is introduce an article in the appendix saying “specific details will be considered at an early date for a conclusion.”

The establishment of an independent body to check policy activity costs that Kishida proposed to Komeito is also only “to be considered, and necessary measures will be taken.” We cannot help but be concerned that this initiative may end up as nothing but a bunch of stop-gap measures.

When political reform was pushed through 30 years ago in response to a spate of corruption scandals, the revision included an appendix article calling for a review of the rules regulating political donations by companies and other organizations in five years. But this and many other appendix articles for the law have been neglected or not even discussed.

If Nippon Ishin and Komeito agree to this amendment to the bill, they must not forget the heavy responsibility they bear to ensure the LDP completes the reform.

The LDP sees a clear path for the revision to the law and is poised to vote early in the ad-hoc committee.

However, the LDP’s amendment covers a wide range of issues, many of which need to be detailed further. There are also some remaining questions that have not been addressed, such as how donations by businesses and other organizations should be regulated.

Discussions on these issues and questions must be exhaustive, with the prime minister, who is also the LDP president, taking part. The ruling camp must not use its dominant power to ram the legislation through the Diet.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 1