Campaign Fundraising among Japanese Legislators, 2017-2018.

Abstract

How much money do MPs raise, and how does fundraising differ depending on factors such as electoral systems, competitive environments, political parties, and personal attributes? While it has been noted that resources tend to concentrate around party leaders, the actual income of MPs in Japan has not been identified since the 2000s. Additionally, the relationship between political fundraising, electoral systems, and competitive environments in the House of Councilors remains unclear as it has not been studied.

In this article, I examine the campaign financing of MPs by constructing data from political finance reports for all MPs who existed in 2017 and 2018. The analysis compares the data with secondary data acquired in 1996 to examine the relationship between electoral systems, political parties, individual attributes, and fundraising. The findings are as follows:

First, as aimed by political reformer, the income of MPs is decreasing, but there are differences in income among them. Second, members of the House of Representatives have higher incomes compared to members of the House of Councillors, and candidates elected from single-member districts (SMDs) have higher incomes than candidates elected through proportional representation (PR). Third, despite the decrease in income for all parties compared to immediately after the political reforms, LDP MPs maintain relatively higher income levels. Fourth, compared to individual factors, the electoral system and party affiliation have a significant correlation with income, with members elected through PR districts tending to have lower incomes. These results suggest that political reforms have functioned to some extent in restraining funding.