Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is considering resuming donations to political parties by the end of the year after a nine-year hiatus, sources said.
The financial services company appears to have concluded that, having repaid the tax money it received in a late-1990s bailout, the way is now clear to make such donations, the sources said.
Nobuo Kuroyanagi, president of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, the core of the holding company, said at a news conference Tuesday, "We will consider the issue down the track, but it is an open question whether we will" resume donations.
Kuroyanagi also serves as head of the Japanese Bankers Association. If MUFG decides to restart political donations, other banks are likely to follow suit.
The group took up the issue after the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), the nation's biggest business lobby, asked the banker association restart the flow of political funds.
Nippon Keidanren has described making political donations as one way businesses can fulfill their duty to society.
But MUFG appears to believe making political donations will give it a greater say in the government's policymaking decisions, including over taxes, the sources said.