Members of the Special Committee on Political Reform of the House of Representatives will debate a bill to revise the Law on the Control of Political Funds in the parliament building on Wednesday morning.
16:01 JST, June 5, 2024
The House of Representatives Special Committee on Political Reform on Wednesday passed a new bill to revise the Political Funds Control Law, with votes from the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party).
The special committee, which exists to discuss reforms following a series of scandals over law-breaking by some LDP factions, voted on the bill after the LDP introduced it for the second time, after withdrawing and revising an earlier version.
The revised bill seems likely to be passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday, after which it will be voted on during a plenary session.
The new bill removes some of the language from the previous version, submitted by the LDP, on disclosing how spending on policy activities that political parties distribute to members of parliament will be removed. For example, a clause imposing a ¥500,000 threshold for expenditure disclosure was removed.
The LDP resubmitted the revised bill to the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning.
At Ishin’s request, receipts for expenses of ¥500,000 or less will also be made public after ten years.
After the LDP submitted the revised bill, Ishin withdrew his own bill, which had been submitted to the lower house.
Keisuke Suzuki, an LDP member of the special committee, explained the revised bill during a committee meeting Wednesday morning: “We have re-examined the bill so that we can establish a more suitable system.”
