TOKYO – The growing accessibility of online fund-raising tools, including crowdfunding, has led Japanese political parties to increasingly turn to internet-based financing, figures from the parties have shown, while experts are stressing the need for new rules to ensure transparency of such money.
The Sanseito party, an emerging populist group that saw a big leap in the House of Councillors election in July with its “Japanese First” mantra, gained about 197 million yen ($1.3 million) from over 8,000 individuals in its crowdfunding campaign before the vote.
The figure more than doubled from the 77 million yen that the party collected for the House of Representatives race in October last year through online fundraising, which usually involves small donations from individuals.
A party official, whose organization gave thank-you gifts such as towels and umbrellas to donors, attributed the popularity of crowdfunding to its convenient way of “getting a sense of participation” in political activities.
The Democratic Party for the People, a major opposition party that has surged in recent elections with pledges to boost the net income of working generations, also raised some 72 million yen in a crowdfunding campaign for the July upper house race.
The DPP boasts of the popularity of its YouTube channel, with about 295,000 subscribers. Its leader, Yuichiro Tamaki, has been releasing online videos for a long time and calls himself the “YouTuber of Nagatacho,” the political hub of Japan where the parliament is located.
Reiwa Shinsengumi, an anti-establishment minor opposition force headed by former TV personality and actor Taro Yamamoto, reported around 16 million yen in advertising revenue from its YouTube programs in its 2024 political funds report, released last month.
Currently, there are no regulations on reporting of internet fund-raising, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, making it unclear what proportion of each party’s donations came from online funding.
Regarding YouTube, posting ad revenue from the video platform depends on political parties. In their 2024 political fund reports, Reiwa and Sanseito recorded their earnings from the platform as “advertising income,” but the DPP did not, saying that its YouTube videos are not “monetized” and do not have ads.
Masahito Tadano, a professor at Hitotsubashi University’s Graduate School of Law, said that rules for political parties’ internet-based fundraising will need to be established, noting that it can be “difficult to determine whether crowdfunding counts as a (political) donation” due to its convenience and casual nature.
AloJapan.com