✶ Japan · Money · 政治資金
¥250
a head.
Under the 1994 Political Party Subsidies Act the state pays Japan's parties ¥250 for every resident, about ¥31.5 billion a year. In 2024 that subsidy was 45.8% of all party headquarters' income. One party refuses it.
What the parties live on
The LDP took in ¥22.1 billion in 2024, 71% of it from the subsidy. The Japanese Communist Party took ¥18.5 billion and no subsidy: 81% was business income, chiefly sales of its newspaper Shimbun Akahata, whose revenue funds the party. Komeito, too, earns more than half its income from business.
Party headquarters · 2024 · 政党本部の収入
- State subsidy 政党交付金
- Business income 事業収入
- Donations 寄附
- Membership dues 党費・会費
- Loans, branches, other 借入金・交付金・その他
- LDP ¥22.1bn 71%
- JCP ¥18.5bn 0%
- Komeito ¥10.1bn 28%
- CDP ¥9.1bn 78%
- Ishin ¥4.3bn 78%
- DPFP ¥1.5bn 82%
- Sanseito ¥1.0bn 24%
- Reiwa ¥1.0bn 71%
- CPJ ¥0.6bn 5%
- SDP ¥0.5bn 58%
Right-hand figure: the state subsidy's share of each party's income. Income for the year, excluding money carried over; MIC figures in thousands of yen, shown here in billions.
All party headquarters together: ¥68.7 billion of income, ¥31.4 billion of it subsidy (45.8%).
1986 – 2024
Less money,
fewer donors.
Income reported nationally fell from ¥167.6 billion in 1986 to ¥93.7 billion in 2024. Donations peaked at ¥95.8 billion in 1991 and dropped from ¥65.0 billion in 1994 to ¥49.9 billion in 1995; fund-raising parties peaked at ¥14.3 billion in 2004.
All political organisations reporting to MIC · 1986–2024 · ¥ billion
- All income
- Business income
- Donations
- of which fund-raising parties
- Year
- 2024
- All income
- ¥93.7bn
- Donations
- ¥15.9bn
- Business income
- ¥26.9bn
- Fund-raising parties
- ¥4.6bn
Income for the year excluding money carried over, of every group that files with the Minister for Internal Affairs (総務大臣届出分: national parties and their branches, their fund bodies, and other political groups including Diet members' own). Fund-raising parties are counted separately only from 1993. Groups that file with prefectural election commissions are not included.
政党交付金 · Political Party Subsidies Act, 1994
Who qualifies,
and how it is shared.
The pot
The budget sets the total at ¥250 times the population at the latest census (Art. 7(1)): about ¥31.5 billion on the 2020 census, MIC says.
Who qualifies
A political group with at least five Diet members, or with at least one and 2% of the vote at the last lower-house election or one of the last two upper-house elections (Art. 2). It must also have a legal personality, and apply.
The split
Half is shared by number of Diet members (議員数割), half by votes (得票数割) (Art. 7(2)). The vote half is split again into quarters: the last lower-house district vote, its list vote, and the averages of the last two upper-house list and district votes (Art. 8). It is paid in four instalments a year.
2026 allocation · decided 8 April 2026 · ¥31.5 billion
- LDP ¥15.36bn
- CDP ¥3.12bn
- Ishin ¥2.82bn
- DPFP ¥2.72bn
- CRA ¥2.34bn
- Sanseito ¥1.99bn
- Komeito ¥1.40bn
- Reiwa ¥0.70bn
- Mirai ¥0.57bn
- CPJ ¥0.30bn
- SDP ¥0.23bn
The JCP has no line: it has refused the subsidy from the start and calls it unconstitutional. Source: Shimbun Akahata, 11 Apr 2026 ↗ (the JCP's paper, reporting MIC's decision).
Try it · 政党助成法 Arts. 7–8
How the pot is split.
Half the money follows a party's Diet members, half its votes. The shares below are of all parties that qualify and apply, not of all voters. Illustrative only: MIC's real calculation uses each party's registered members on the base date and exact vote counts.
Total subsidy · population × ¥250 ¥31.54 billion
- Member half
- ¥3.15 billion
- Vote half
- ¥2.56 billion
- This party, a year
- ¥5.72 billion
- Share of the pot
- 18.1%
Default population: the figure implied by the 2026 total (¥31,536,520,000).
政治資金規正法 · Political Funds Control Act
Who may give,
and how much.
- Individuals → parties ¥20 million a year in all
- Total a person may give in a year to parties and their designated fund-raising bodies (政治資金団体). Art. 21-3(1)
- Individuals → other groups ¥10 million a year; ¥1.5 million to any one
- To politicians' support groups and other political organisations: ¥10 million in all (Art. 21-3(3)), and no more than ¥1.5 million to the same recipient (Art. 22(2)). Arts. 21-3(3), 22(2)
- Companies and unions Parties only; ¥7.5 million to ¥100 million a year
- Companies, unions and other organisations may give only to parties and their fund-raising bodies (Art. 21). The yearly cap rises with a company's capital or a union's membership: ¥7.5 million below ¥1 billion of capital, ¥30 million from ¥5 billion, plus steps for the largest, up to ¥100 million. Arts. 21, 21-3(1)–(2)
- Candidates No cash gifts
- No one may give money to a candidate personally for political activity other than campaigning; it must go to a political organisation, such as the candidate's fund-management body. Art. 21-2
- Fund-raising parties ¥1.5 million per buyer per event
- The organiser of a fund-raising party (政治資金パーティー) may not take more than ¥1.5 million from the same buyer for one event. Art. 22-8
裏金 · 2023 – 2024
The slush-fund
scandal.
- From November 2023
LDP factions, above all the Seiwakai (Abe faction), are found to have left fund-raising-party income unreported and kept it as slush funds (裏金). Several lawmakers are indicted, and all but one LDP faction disband.
Source ↗ - June 2024
Political Funds Control Act amended (令和6年法律第64号): buyers of fund-raiser tickets disclosed above ¥50,000 (was above ¥200,000); a Diet member must issue a confirmation letter (確認書) for each of their groups' reports.
Source ↗ - December 2024
Re-amendment: “policy activity funds” (政策活動費) paid to politicians without receipts are abolished, and an independent monitoring commission (政治資金監視委員会) is created. A ban on corporate donations is deferred.
Source ↗
法定選挙運動費用 · 2026
A cap for each
candidate.
Every district candidate's campaign spending is capped by a formula: registered electors on the day of the announcement times a set amount, plus a fixed sum (公職選挙法 Art. 194). In 2026 the caps ran from ¥22.4 million in Tottori 1 to ¥28.3 million in Kagoshima 2; the median was ¥24.8 million.
- 4 22.0
- 16 22.5
- 19 23.0
- 35 23.5
- 38 24.0
- 69 24.5
- 61 25.0
- 29 25.5
- 9 26.0
- 5 26.5
- 2 27.0
- 1 27.5
- 1 28.0
Lower edge of each band, ¥ million.