Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the prime minister's office on June 6 (Takeshi Iwashita)

A bill to revise the Political Fund Control Law cleared the Lower House on June 6, a compromise aimed at preventing a recurrence of a fund-raising scandal that has plagued the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The LDP enlisted support from its junior coalition partner, Komeito, and opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) by acceding to some of their demands and modifying the bill.

Free Education for All, a small party established last year, also voted for the bill.

The bill is expected to be enacted before the current ordinary Diet session closes on June 23 as the four parties control a majority of seats in the Upper House between them.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party for the People and other parties voted against the bill.

The Upper House will begin deliberations on the bill on June 7.

The bill is primarily designed to deal with problems that emerged from the scandal centered around years of unreported revenues from LDP factions’ fund-raising parties.

The LDP submitted the bill on its own to the Lower House on May 17 after failing to win backing from Komeito, which called for stricter regulations.

Under the Political Fund Control Law, buyers of tickets to fund-raising parties must be identified if the tickets cost more than 200,000 yen ($1,280).

The LDP incorporated Komeito’s proposal to lower the disclosure threshold to more than 50,000 yen into the bill to secure its support.

The party also agreed to Nippon Ishin’s proposal to report how politicians spent policy activity expenses they received from political parties by disclosing receipts 10 years later.

However, the LDP rejected more drastic measures proposed by the CDP, the DPP, the JCP and other parties, such as banning political donations from companies and organizations and abolishing policy activity expenses.

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