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The Mainichi
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Mainichi
Editorial: Tokyo metro assembly's LDP group irresponsible to sidestep slush fund scandal
The start of campaigning for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election is impending, yet there has been no progress in unraveling a slush fund scandal involving the assembly's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) faction. With regard to political fundraising parties held by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly LDP faction in 2019 and 2022, officials failed to record income exceeding the fundraising quotas set for members in financial reports, effectively creating a slush fund. This bears a resemblance to the slush fund scandal involving the LDP's former Abe faction. A total of around 35 million yen (about $245,000) went undeclared, leading to the summary indictment and conviction of a faction accountant. However, cases were not formed against 26 current and former members of the assembly who failed to declare the additional income. In February this year, a committee was set up within the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly to consider a political ethics ordinance in response to the scandal. Clarification of the truth would normally be a premise for establishing an ordinance, but the LDP's reluctant attitude has stood out. All 16 of the current metropolitan assembly members who failed to properly disclose the income responded in writing that they were not aware of any illegality. Two assembly members who were secretaries-general at the time were called as witnesses but only stated that creating slush funds was "a long-standing practice." They added that they "cannot confirm who gave the instructions or when" and that they had "never discussed whether or not to list" the additional income in financial reports. Such evasive explanations are unacceptable. In fact, contradictory testimony has newly emerged from a former faction staff member. In documents and responses to closed-door hearings, the former staffer explained that "the basic policy was set by the faction's executive board (assembly members) at the time." It was also revealed that the secretary-general at the time had said at the faction's general meeting, "Feel free to do as you please" regarding income exceeding the quota for party ticket sales. Regarding the accountant who was summarily indicted, the former worker expressed an understanding that, "He simply carried out tasks as instructed and was not in a position to direct or decide on the skimming." There is a discrepancy between the claims of the assembly members and the former staff member. The LDP must fulfill its responsibility to provide an explanation. Various opinion polls have shown that while public attention is focused on measures to address rising prices, interest in money in politics remains high. While there is little time left before the start of campaigning for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on June 13 and voting on June 22, a thorough investigation is necessary. It will not work for officials to turn their backs on clarification of the facts and wait for the issue to fade away. To contribute to the revival of political parties and politics as a whole, the LDP must demonstrate its self-cleansing abilities.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tokyo is turning to a 4-day workweek in a desperate attempt to help Japan shed its unwanted title of ‘world's oldest population'
Japan is facing a population crisis—so Tokyo, its largest city, will try to solve the problem with something new: a four-day workweek. Starting in April, the Tokyo Metropolitan government, one of the country's largest employers, is set to allow its employees to work only four days a week. It is also adding a new 'childcare partial leave' policy, which will allow some employees to work two fewer hours per day. The goal is to help employees who are parents balance childcare and work, said Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike. "We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to life events such as childbirth or child-rearing," Koike said in a speech during the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly's regular session, the Japan Times reported. The new policies come as the birth rate in Japan hit a record low in 2024. From January to June, the country recorded 350,074 births, down 5.7% from the same period in 2023, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. Japan isn't the only country facing declining fertility. According to The New Yorker, by 2100, 97% of the world's countries are predicted to be below replacement, or the number of births required to maintain a stable population. South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world, and dog strollers outsold baby strollers there last year. While the UN predicts the global population will continue to grow long into this century, some pro-natalists (including, notably, world's richest man and father of 13 Elon Musk) worry declining birth rates are the world's biggest looming problem. Japan's total fertility rate, which represents the number of children a woman has in her lifetime, stood at 1.2 in 2023, and in Tokyo, the birth rate was even lower at 0.99. To maintain a broadly stable population, a birth rate of 2.1 is required, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The median age of a Japanese citizen is 49.9, according to the Central Intelligence Agency. In the U.S., the median age is 38.9. Japan has taken drastic steps toward reversing its low birth rate. Starting in the 1990s, the government required companies to offer generous parental leave, added subsidies for day care, and started offering cash payments to parents. Earlier this year, the Tokyo government also launched its own dating app to help single people find a partner and marry. Yet the birth rate has still fallen consistently over the past eight years, according to government data. Moving to a four-day workweek could help address some of the core issues associated with Japan's heavy work culture, which can especially weigh on working women. The gap between men and women when it comes to housework is one of the largest among OECD countries, with women in Japan engaging in five times more unpaid work, such as childcare and elder care, than men, according to the International Monetary Fund. More than half of women who had fewer children than they would have preferred said they had fewer children because of the increased housework that another child would bring, according to the IMF. In some cases, moving to a four-day workweek has been shown to improve housework equity. Men reported spending 22% more time on childcare and 23% more time on housework during a four-day workweek trial conducted across six countries by 4 Day Week Global, which advocates for the issue. It would take a major societal change for the four-day workweek to catch on more broadly, but years of experiments have shown that working one day less a week improves employee productivity and well-being, said Peter Miscovich, the global future of work leader at real estate services company JLL. 'The upside from all of that has been less stress, less burnout, better rest, better sleep, less cost to the employee, higher levels of focus and concentration during the working hours, and in some cases, greater commitment to the organization as a result,' Miscovich told Fortune. While four-day workweek tests like the one in Tokyo can be innovative experiments, they may not be the solution that some make them out to be, said Julia Hobsbawm, the founder of workplace consultancy Workathon and author of the book Working Assumptions: What We Thought We Knew About Work Before Covid and Generative AI—And What We Know Now. 'I firmly believe that there is no one size fits all,' Hobsbawm told Fortune. 'In a time of increasing flexibility across working practices, both technological and human, you simply can't say that the one size that might fit one industry, in one country, for one purpose, of a four-day week fits all.' A version of this story originally published on on Dec. 7, 2024. This story was originally featured on
