Power and Money in Japanese Politics

In Japanese politics, bribery and corruption occur from time to time. In a recent case, Tsukasa Akimoto, an up-from-the ranks Diet member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and former state minister in the Cabinet Office in charge of integrated resorts businesses, including the introduction of casinos to Japan, was arrested on December 25, 2019 for suspected receipt of a 3.7 million yen (about $33,610) bribe from a Chinese gambling company, 500.com.

The casino-related bribery scandal did not stop with Akimoto’s arrest, either. Mikio Shimoji, a Diet member of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), also admitted to receiving a 1 million yen bribe from an adviser of the same company. Four other LDP lawmakers were suspected of receiving money from the company, including former Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya.

Diet members are representatives of the people in Japan, and are able to exert political influence over lawmaking processes and certain businesses and industries. Needless to say, they earn decent wages. 

Why, then, do some Japanese Diet members end up embroiled in bribery and corruption? 

In Japan, the National Diet is the “highest organ of the state power” and the “sole law-making organ of the state.” It consists of two houses, the House of Representatives (the lower house) and the House of Councillors (the upper house). Both houses are composed of Diet members who serve as “elected members, representative of all the people.”

There are three main privileges for Japanese Diet members. First, they can receive “appropriate annual payment” from the national treasury. Second, Diet members are “exempt from apprehension” when a Diet session is open. Third, they are not “held liable outside the House for speeches, debates, or votes cast inside the House.” There are, of course, additional perks that come with a seat in the Japanese Diet. For example, they can choose to receive 1) a Japan Rail (JR) free pass, including to the green carriage of a bullet train (Shinkansen), 2) a JR pass plus airfare coupon for three round-trips a month, or 3) airfare coupon for four round-trips a month.

As noted above, Japanese legislators receive “appropriate annual payment.” In 2019, it was announced that the average annual income of Japanese Diet members in 2018 was 26.57 million yen, inflated by the income of Jiro Hatoyama, the top earner of the year, who took in 1.74 billion yen. The income of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as the 27th earner, was 40.28 million yen. 

But precisely how much is the annual income of a Diet member?

The basic monthly salary of a Diet member is 1,294,000 yen (15,528,000 yen annually). In addition, the annual bonus of a Diet member is 6,350,000 yen. So the total annual income of a Japanese legislator amounts to 21,878,000 yen. The annual income of a legislator in Japan (about $201,800) is higher than that of a comparable legislator in the United States ($174,000), South Korea ($105,000), Germany ($102,600), and the United Kingdom ($91,200). As shown in the table below, it is obvious that Japanese lawmakers earn higher wages compared with parliamentarians or legislators of other countries, as well as average Japanese workers.