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On December 1, the executive of the DPJ Political Reform Promotion Headquarters (Chair: Secretary General Katsuya Okada) held a meeting inside the Diet building. The proposed outlines for legislation banning donations from corporations and organisations, and for providing tax breaks to encourage donations from individuals were presented to the meeting and confirmed. The proposals will now be put before a general meeting of the Political Reform Promotion Headquarters to be convened in the New Year, and if approved there, will be submitted to the Diet during the forthcoming ordinary Diet session as a Diet members’ bill.
The meeting also heard an explanation from DPJ Vice President Hajime Ishii regarding reform of the electoral system for the House of Councillors, including amending the number of seats in the House of Councillors. It was agreed that further discussions should be held regarding this matter.
It was also agreed that bills for shifting control of government from bureaucrats to politicians, and for invigorating debate in the Diet should be carried over to the next Diet session, and that handling of these bills during the next session should be left in the hands of the DPJ’s Diet Affairs Committee.
The outline for legislation banning donations from corporations and organizations aims to reduce donations permitted by a single corporation or organization from the current level of between 7.5 million to 100 million yen according to the size of the company or organization to two-thirds of that amount in 2012, one-third of that amount in 2013, and zero in 2014. This is after the legislation has been passed by the Diet, which is estimated to be in 2011. However, donations from political organizations will be permitted.
The outline for tax breaks to encourage individual donations proposes a system which will be implemented in 2012 after legislation has been passed by the Diet. Under this system, for individual donations, the first 2000 yen of a single donation will not receive any tax credit, the portion exceeding 2000 yen up till 10,000 yen will be tax-free, the portion exceeding 10,000 yen up till 50,000 yen will be eligible for a 50% tax credit, and the portion over 50,000 yen will be eligible for a 30% tax credit.
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