Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was forced to make concessions to the leader of the junior coalition partner on Friday to pursue his goal of political funds reform, following the failure of arrangements between the ruling parties.
But some lawmakers of Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party criticized him for conceding too much to the Komeito party as he seeks to boost his Cabinet's approval ratings, which have plunged to their lowest levels since it was launched in October 2021.
Earlier this month, Komeito, whose slogan is "clean politics," rejected the LDP's proposals to amend the political funds control law, saying Kishida lacks seriousness in reforming rules on money in politics despite the recent fundraising scandal.
Kishida met with Natsuo Yamaguchi, chief of Komeito at the prime minister's office on Friday. Yamaguchi told reporters that Kishida has "made a crucial decision," which would "open the door" for enacting the revised law.
Their agreement is likely to set the stage for the passage of the bill to amend the political funds control law by the end of the ongoing parliamentary session on June 23, as Kishida, who heads the LDP, has pledged to achieve.
Critics point out that the political funds control law, which has been revised several times after money scandals involving LDP members were revealed, still contains loopholes that enable politicians to maintain slush funds.
Later Friday, Kishida also signed an agreement on the LDP's revised blueprint for reforming the political funds control law with Nobuyuki Baba, the leader of the country's second-largest opposition Japan Innovation Party.
But other opposition parties have called for more drastic amendments to the law, including banning corporate donations to political parties and introducing guilt by association, which could punish lawmakers if their staff members are convicted.
The conservative LDP does not hold a majority in the House of Councillors. Komeito, backed by Japan's biggest lay Buddhist organization, initially formed a coalition government with the LDP from 1999 to 2009 and later regained power together in 2012.
The LDP, which has been in power for most of the period since 1955, has come under scrutiny after some of its factions neglected to report portions of their incomes from fundraising parties and accumulated slush funds for years.
The current law does not require the names of buyers of fundraising party tickets up to 200,000 yen ($1,280) to be recorded in political funds reports. The LDP had proposed lowering the threshold to 100,000 yen.
On Friday, Yamaguchi told reporters that Kishida said his LDP is considering reducing the threshold to 50,000 yen, as demanded by Komeito, to enhance the transparency of the use of political funds.
The LDP has also been urged to review the rules on how to report the usage of the so-called policy activity funds provided by parties to their senior lawmakers. The funds are not subject to disclosure, even when expenditures reach hundreds of millions of yen.
Some LDP heavyweights have been accused of accepting significant amounts of policy activity funds. In 2022, the party distributed more than 1.4 billion yen in such funds, with around 971 million yen allocated to Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi.
Kishida, meanwhile, confirmed with Baba that they will aim to make it mandatory to disclose the receipts of all payments from the policy activity funds 10 years after they are used and to set an annual cap on the usage of the money.
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