Major political donors of the Japan utility executives

TOKYO (AP) - leaders of the Japanese utility company were by far the largest individual donors to former ruling party of the Japan in his last year in power, cash for a whopping 72% of personal contributions, said a report.While donations amounted to only a small fraction of the Fund to the operations of the Liberal Democratic Party, the revelation is likely to add to the issues surrounding the connections between the electricity companies and politicians in the disaster in the Northeast the Japan triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.Nine companies of public service executives have contributed 47 million yen ($595,000) for the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009, kyodo News agency reported. It is almost three quarters of almost 65 million yen ($823,000) a received in 2009 the total individual donations to the party.Among the donors were executives with Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the radiation spewing the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power reactors. The crisis is the worst nuclear disaster in the world since Chernobyl.Kyodo, said late Friday and that he had obtained the information by analyzing the political funding reports published by Ministry of Internal Affairs and communications.Personal political contributions are relatively rare in the Japan, representing approximately 5% of the LDP funding in 2009. The vast majority of the funds of the former party in power 2.8 billion yen ($36 million) main operations comes from corporate donations.Personal donations of the leaders of the utility average approximately 300,000 yen ($ 3,800) each, well within the legal limit for individual contributions.Individual contributions are always likely to attract a review, however, especially since energy sector ceased to make the corporate donations to the party to power in 1974, Kyodo.That industry decision was in response to the growth of the criticism about the friendships between the legislators and the sector of energy, said Kyodo.Le Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, was voted the power in 2009relinquishing his grip on power that it had occurred in the postwar Japan almost continuously.Promotion of nuclear energy and its security despite the recurrent scandals and accidents are the pillars of its policy in orchestrating the recovery and growth after the second world war.Kyodo confirmed no contribution of executives in 2009 to the body of fund management policy of the new party of the Japan, the Japan Democrat.