Japanese Prime Minister Hiroshi Ishiba says donations from companies and groups are “not inappropriate”; questions begin in the House of Commons

December 3, 2024

Tokyo – Japan’s Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Shigeru Ishiba said on the first day of questions from LDP representatives at the LDP plenary session on Monday that the Liberal Democratic Party does not consider donations from companies and organizations to be “inappropriate.” Japan's Cadet Democratic Party and other political parties have called for a ban on such donations as part of a reform of the political funds management law.

Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, said, “Why has the main issue of the reform ban on corporate and organizational donations not been put on the debate topic?” The China Democratic Party has always criticized these donations as a “hotbed of corruption.”

Noda also asked LDP lawmakers who failed to record funds received in their political funding reports to attend a political ethics review meeting in the House of Representatives. In response, Ishiba said: “I urge them to fulfill their responsibilities based on the situation they find themselves in.”