Factions within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party have been financially struggling since the LDP stopped offering donations to them in 2010, their balance reports showed, apparently prodding them to rely on fundraising events to procure money.
As the LDP, headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, has decided to ban its intraparty groups from holding fundraising parties as part of efforts to reform its faction-oriented politics, their financial situations are set to deteriorate further, political experts said.
The ruling party has come under intense scrutiny amid allegations that some of its factions failed to report part of revenue from fundraising parties and accumulated hundreds of millions of yen in slush funds to reimburse their members.
With criticism of the LDP growing, the party has promised to move away from factions as vehicles for securing funds and allocating key government and party posts for lawmakers. But it has allowed them to continue as "policy groups."
Kishida has decided to disband the fourth-biggest faction that he led until December and some other groups have followed suit. On the other hand, former Prime Minister Taro Aso and Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi have voiced willingness to maintain their groups.
The income of the factions within the LDP has stayed low after the party, which has been in power for most of the period since 1955, refrained from providing them with donations.
In 2010, the revenue of the largest faction formerly headed by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, stood at 160 million yen ($1 million) excluding carryover, down from 480 million yen in the previous year, its political funds reports showed.
The income of Kishida's group decreased from 360 million yen in 2009 to 150 million yen the following year, while that of the Motegi faction dropped to 80 million yen from 320 million yen during the same period, according to their reports.
Meanwhile, the proportion of fundraising party revenue in their finances has remained high for more than a decade since 2010, with that of the Kishida faction up sharply from a year earlier to 72 percent from 48 percent in 2009.
The LDP leadership has been cautious about resuming donations to its factions, as political parties, except for the Japanese Communist Party, have received subsidies from the national coffers. The LDP obtained around 16 billion yen in 2023 alone.
Rank-and-file members of the LDP's factions have long been frustrated with the insufficient financial support from their groups.
A lawmaker from the Abe faction said its members had sales quotas for faction party tickets and they were required to make donations to the group, claiming that there is "hardly any financial benefit" to be part of it.
The LDP has urged factions to abolish their tradition of providing their members with contributions. Another lawmaker who belongs to the group led by former Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai said the new rule seems to be convenient for money-strapped factions.
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