A132 Yes, now it is less powerful. There are several reasons for this, including the revision of the Political Funds Control Law, which made all political contributions transparent, and the fact that Nippon Keidanren has ceased acting as an intermediary and no longer collects political donations from its members. During the era of the iron triangle, industry provided large amounts of money for Liberal Democratic Parry (LDP) members of the Diet, and was criticized for soaking the system with money politics and political corruption. In 1993, when the LDP lost power, Keidanren called a halt to its role as an intermediary for political donations.

However, in 2004 when Hiroshi Okuda was president of Nippon Keidanren, he reintroduced the role of intermediary for donations. His view was that one should "give money and give your opinion," in the belief that the most effective way of influencing politicians was through political contributions. Yet he did not just reintroduce the old system. Instead, every year when Nippon Keidanren and companies decided on the amount of funds to donate, they would announce publicly how the LDP and the opposition Democratic Parry of]apan would be evaluated on 10 policy items. This political report card generally rates the LDP highest and contributions to it are also higher than those to other parties.