Can utilities fund political parties?

April 22, 2014

Nine utilities buy fund-raising party tickets for Aso

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201404220044 

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Nine operators of nuclear plants have bought tickets to Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso’s fund-raising parties for at least 10 years but avoided having their names listed in his political fund reports, The Asahi Shimbun learned.

The electric power companies each limited their spending per party to 200,000 yen ($1,950) or less.

Any sum over 200,000 yen must be entered into a politician’s political fund reports under the Political Fund Control Law.

Similar payments by utilities were revealed in an Asahi Shimbun report in January concerning fund-raising tickets for Akira Amari, a pro-nuclear Cabinet minister who is in charge of economic revitalization.

In response to an inquiry by The Asahi Shimbun, an official with Aso’s office said, “We handled the political fund reports properly based on the Political Fund Control Law.”

The nine utilities, regional monopolies that derive their revenues from electricity rates paid by consumers, want to restart their idled reactors. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently seeking to promote nuclear power despite continued anti-nuclear sentiment among the public following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

According to senior executives with the utilities, the nine companies spent about 1 million yen together for each of Aso’s fund-raising parties. They divvied up their share based on the size of their business operations.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and the largest of all the utilities, halted its purchases after the 2011 triple meltdown at the plant.

But the other companies have continued to spend amounts similar to those before the nuclear accident.

Political fund reports of several entities linked to Aso showed that he held an average of three fund-raising parties a year between 2000 and 2012.

The combined purchase by the utilities is estimated to average several million yen a year.

The nine utilities declined to discuss details of their individual purchases.

An official of Kansai Electric Power Co., the second largest and most reliant on nuclear power of all utilities, said, “(Kansai Electric) does not buy tickets in collaboration with other companies.”

Aso, 73, who doubles as finance minister and has enormous clout in crafting the nation’s energy policy, is closely associated with Fukuoka-based Kyushu Electric Power Co., the fourth largest utility after TEPCO, Kansai Electric and Chubu Electric Power Co.

Aso is from Fukuoka Prefecture and used to run a core company of the family’s Aso group before he turned to politics.

Kyushu Electric’s Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture is widely expected to be the first nuclear power plant to go back online, possibly in summer.

“Trust in the electric power company is high in the local region,” Aso said at a news conference on April 18, referring to the Sendai nuclear plant.

(This article was written by Takashi Ichida, Hiroo Sunaoshi and Kamome Fujimori.)