Online fund-raising spreads among Japanese political parties

The growing accessibility of online fund-raising tools, including crowdfunding, has led Japanese political parties to increasingly turn to internet-based financing, figures from the parties have shown, while experts are stressing the need for new rules to ensure transparency of such money.The Sanseito party, an emerging populist group that saw a big leap in the House of Councillors election in July with its "Japanese First" mantra, gained about 197 million yen ($1.3 million) from over 8,000 individuals in its crowdfunding campaign before the vote.The figure more than doubled from the 77 mil…READ FULL ARTICLE