The Liberal Democratic Party gained the upper hand this week in a battle to protect corporate and group donations, driving a wedge between the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the opposition Democratic Party for the People while blaming the CDP for botched negotiations.
“It’s the CDP’s fault that the committee couldn’t convene,” Shinjiro Koizumi, secretary-general of the LDP’s political reform headquarters, told reporters on Thursday, deflecting blame for missing the deadline to wrap up talks on corporate and group donations by March 31, the last day of fiscal 2024.
The LDP has convinced Komeito and the DPP to lift constraints on party branches, as initially proposed, allowing them to accept endowments from companies and industry groups provided they submit and publish political funds reports online.
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