Overview
- On Dec. 9, the Lower House political reform committee opened substantive questioning on three rival plans to revise corporate and group donations, with parties still far apart.
- A National Democratic–Komeito proposal would confine recipients to party headquarters and prefectural organizations and would cap the amounts.
- The LDP plan emphasizes transparency steps, requiring online filing by party branches and setting donor disclosure at over ¥50,000, a shift from a ¥1 million threshold floated in January.
- An LDP–Japan Innovation Party bill would set up an expert panel to recommend rules by September 2027, effectively pushing decisions to that timetable.
- Exchanges underscored the split, as LDP lawmaker Taku Nemoto called recipient limits “targeted regulation,” and opposition lawmakers questioned the feasibility and necessity of the ruling camp’s approach; separately, opposition parties refused to debate a seat-reduction bill in parallel, insisting donation curbs take priority.