LDP to make new lawmakers donate ¥1 mil transportation allowance

it'll be buried in meetings and conferences... oh and luncheons!

Sure a lot of money for 1 month for travel and communication.

Average person has to work months for that sum.

wow….

I mill a month for transport? gosh!!!!!!!

There's no reason why any of these clowns should automatically receive 1,000,000 yen for travel expenses. They should only be recompensated for actual busines trips they've taken like I always do. How much more cush money do these good ol' boys give themselves??

1 million yen monthly transportation and communication allowance 

So present members have been getting 12million extra a year for years? Is that right? And this is on top of their extraordinary salary? Transport? and when first reported the communication part was mail costs? These people are something not close to human. 12 million a year that’s 3 times the average salary on top of their fanominal salary….and there are other benefits too. Somebody should work out how much tax per citizen money goes to paying the hundreds of these hereditary leaches. And they begrudgingly give ¥100,000 to a narrow gap of people, when they get so much more for transport and envelopes?

Another technical issue about the "transportation" allowance is its low accountability. The monthly payment of 1 million yen is made automatically, and how it is spent in details never have to be reported or published. I suspect that many lawmakers use it for other purposes than transportation or relevant expenses.

He suggested the party will consider where to donate the money, which cannot be technically returned to the state coffers.

They should find a better way, ideally by legislation, to let (public) money back straight to the state, as the donation from politicians to any entity could constitute a bribery charge.

I don’t care about other countries I pay tax here, I earn my salary here. The care and concern about tax payers in Japan is woeful, it’s assumed by politicians that suffering by the people is a badge of pride, something to be counted on. Try that in a developed country.

Ridiculous…. Come seven bigger, don’t know how many people know that parliamentarians don’t need to present their receipts in Japan for reimbursements……. I run a company and the tax man is on my neck for receipts for each and every yen but they go 100% free…

1 million might be cheap! If they are allowed to claim expenses, they'll be claiming millions the greedy ....!

And remember that this is tax free... 12 million on top of 12-22 million salary, and it’s not the only allowance they get.

Annual allowances in the US (1.2 - 3 million USD) are much more generous than in Japan (120,000 USD):

It's transportation allowance, you know, not complete "allowance".

These lawmakers transportation allowance is higher than my monthly salary + bonus.

FYI, the Diet members have privilege to take JR trains (in high-class "green" seat), airplane (biz class), and other public transportations for free, without booking. Oddly, those expenses are NOT included in the transportation/communication allowance, and lawmakers don't have to seek receipts for reporting. They are financed by tax money whose annual amount is about 1.3 billion yen.

バスも新幹線、飛行機も乗り放題？　国会議員だけの「魔法のパス」

https://go2senkyo.com/articles/2016/06/20/19635.html

This gives UK MPs a run for their money. Literally.

Getting rich in Japan is as easy as getting elected. Disgusting.

Very good decisions.

Japan Innovation Party, criticized the payment

Great start by the Ishin team and now leading the way. Latest opinion polls already had them with second highest support above the CDPJ, and the good start here will likely boost their profile further in a positive way.

Cutting waste in government spending starts there, with this attitude. Going to need that attitude to find the 50% of the budget to slash to bring Japan’s public finances under control.

and indicated the conservative opposition party will collect the allowance from its new Diet members and donate the money to disaster-hit areas among others.

Um, they are not conservative, they are reformist - conservative means keeping the status quo, but here the story is about them challenging it, as per their reformist agenda.

The conservatives are those who can’t even decide what they want to do about receiving a million yen per head for less than 4 hours after being elected on October 31st - aka Komeito.

@Paul

Solution :

Their expense are covered up to 1 million only in the instance they provide proof of it. The detail will be available for the population and expenses can be challenged in court.

Simplier : cut it. They are already granted free public transportation. Communication are supposed to be work related thus they should be going through the parliament office &co. Once again, all be checked by authority and published.

They receive one million yen per month and can spend it without reciept aside from annual allowance of 20 million yen. It is our tax paid by far less revenue.

From reading this article, let me get this right:

1) They receive 1 million yen upfront, 12 million a year. regardless of whether they travel or not. This is an allowance, so probably un-taxed.

2) They are not obliged to returned the unused portion of the allowance.

3) They are not reimbured travel costs up to 1 million, they are just given it.

4) Where does the unused portion of the allowance go?

5) The allowance is handed out as a bulk amount if you work 1 day or more in the calendar month. Not on a pro-rata basis.

And above highlights how horribly inefficient, borderline corrupt, this system is.

What can we say? - “Welcome to Japan” ?? -

@InspectorGadget 6:09 am: “From reading this article, let me get this right:

1) They receive 1 million yen upfront, 12 million a year. regardless of whether they travel or not. This is an allowance, so probably un-taxed.

2) They are not obliged to returned the unused portion of the allowance. 

3) They are not reimbured travel costs up to 1 million, they are just given it.

4) Where does the unused portion of the allowance go?

5) The allowance is handed out as a bulk amount if you work 1 day or more in the calendar month. Not on a pro-rata basis.

And above highlights how horribly inefficient, borderline corrupt, this system is.”

As Noriahojanen wrote, these politicians do not have to pay for JR, so why the huge amount for transportation. This is such a waste of taxpayers money. Also, good for Ishin, while I worry they will remain a Kansai area party, hopefully they can strengthen their base and become a real opposition. But I did see that the former governor of Osaka, when he was elected as a member of parliament in 2015, he received the same money, and didn't return it!

What a very misleading title, it is like giving credit to the LDP. Title should have been "Outcry as New lawmakers elected on Oct 31 get the full one million yen communication and transport allowance for Oct"

fxgaiNov. 16  10:12 pm JST

"Japan Innovation Party, criticized the payment"

Great start by the Ishin team and now leading the way.

Um.... it appears from the article that it was actually the LDP who led the way on this.

I think the million yen is the total and not per person.

Lots of companies are still paying for commuter pass despite working from home.

If you are still getting it then hope your management don't read this article.

it appears from the article that it was actually the LDP who led the way on this.

This English article might give a reader such an impression, but from following the J-news, it’s clear that Ishin was all over this and that’s why the LDP started to move at all.

For example, try the story at Mainichi:

文通費100万円受給問題　維新先制で与野党あわてて対応

This English article might give a reader such an impression, but from following the J-news, it’s clear that Ishin was all over this and that’s why the LDP started to move at all.

You right.

Anybody would be out of their senses thinking that the party of waste and free spending would do anything to that would adversely affect their income.

LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi told a press conference that he thinks it is "strange" for lawmakers to receive such an amount for just one day of service.

"We would like to take an appropriate response to avoid a situation that raises questions among the people," Motegi added. He suggested the party will consider where to donate the money, which cannot be technically returned to the state coffers.

Will consider.

More like a pledge, I expect nothing to be done.

If the LDP is really serious, why can't they make it technically possible to return it to state coffers.

No Kag, you are wrong! This is for each and every newly elected member of parliament! Not sure how many freshmen politicians were elected but it looked to be about 40! So do the math, 40X¥1000,000!

This is what members of the diet make annually, in most cases for doing nothing or for sleeping while the plebs work their ass off.

Basic Salary : 15M yen

Bonus : 6M yen

Communication & Transportation Allowance : 12M

Legislative Affairs Expenses : 7.8M

Secretary Salary 18M - 24M

Total 60M to 65M yen/year

Obviously all of the above and all politicians and parties must have taken advantage at some point in the past of this loophole.

That’s right, up until the new blood joined this time they were all happy to just take the 1 million yen tax free with no strings attached and let it pass.

Even the Mayor Yoshimura of Osaka (Ishin guy) has apologised, and said he will donate an amount that he received in similar circumstances back in 2015 when he was a Diet member himself.

Hopefully this is just the beginning though.

In context that allowance on top of salary and other allowances, alone is the same amount of money 3 or 4 families live on a year! With children. And you can be sure it’s a local travel allowance with a seperate overseas allowance. They make me sick.

fxgaiNov. 17  09:15 am JST

it appears from the article that it was actually the LDP who led the way on this.

This English article might give a reader such an impression, but from following the J-news, it’s clear that Ishin was all over this and that’s why the LDP started to move at all.

Fair enough. This article does rather omit that detail.