A fter a nine-year break, Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) this year is resuming its role in mediating political donations from affiliated companies. The aim, of course, is to increase its influence on politics. In other words, Nippon Keidanren is seeking to sway politics with the policy of "we pay the money, so we should have a say."
As the nation's largest business organization, however, Nippon Keidanren will have to maintain a certain degree of self-imposed restraint in influencing politics with financial power. Otherwise, an excessive move toward having a bigger say in politics could provoke public antipathy. Even more than before, business people and business circles must try to keep harmony with civil society and to exercise good conscience and self-control as members of that society.
Certainly companies assist people's lives by supplying products and services that people need, and they also provide employment opportunities. The basic goal of business organizations, which is to make profits, remains unchanged. If the pursuit of profits goes too far, though, it may threaten people's lives. A good example of this was the problem of pollution in the 1970s, when the discharge of exhaust gas and pollutants caused illness and suffering among local residents.