Parliament on Wednesday started deliberations on three bills related to the reform of political donations from companies and other organizations, at a session of the political reform special committee of the House of Representatives.

The same committee is also expected to handle a bill on a cut in the number of Lower House seats, which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), is planning to submit on Friday.

Opposition parties are demanding that the committee give priority to deliberations on the political donation bills over the Lower House seat reduction legislation.

But the ruling side has avoided giving a clear response to the opposition demand, leaving the course of the committee¡¯s deliberations uncertain.

Some speculate that, with only about two weeks left until the Dec. 17 end of the current extraordinary Diet session, the ruling side is attempting to handle its bill first while putting the political donation bills on the back burner.

One of the three bills was submitted jointly by the Democratic Party for the People and Komeito, which has dissolved its coalition with the LDP and is now on the opposition side. The bill to amend the political funds control law calls for limiting the recipients of donations from companies and other organizations to political parties¡¯ headquarters and prefectural chapters.

One of the other two bills, presented by the LDP, obliges political party branches that receive donations from corporations and other organizations to submit political funds reports online.

The remaining bill, submitted by the LDP and the JIP, also known as Nippon Ishin no Kai, calls for setting up a third-party committee at the parliament for discussions to explore appropriate ways to regulate donations from companies and other organizations.

The bill spells out that the third-party committee should reach a conclusion by September 2027, when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi¡¯s term as LDP president expires.