Lawmakers earned an average of ¥24.16 million in income last year, down ¥110,000 from 2019, Diet data showed Wednesday, with the salary of members cut by 20% since May 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The average income among lawmakers marked a decline in 2020 for the second straight year. But it remained almost flat compared with the 2019 level despite the salary cut in view of people's lives and state finances impacted by the pandemic, buoyed by sharp gains in income of the top earner through stock sales.
Taichiro Motoe, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party member of the House of Councillors, topped the list of 702 lawmakers with his income of ¥1.91 billion. He became the top earner among lawmakers for the second consecutive year.