On Dec. 20, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications provided a total of 7.94342 billion yen in the fourth tranche of 2021 government subsidies to eight political parties. The Japanese Communist Party did not apply for the subsidy as it opposes the subsidy system. The parties are subsidized in four allocations a year based on the number of Diet members each party has as of January and the number of votes garnered in the last Lower House election and the two previous Upper House elections. The subsidies provided to the political parties based on a calculation made after the October Lower House election were as follows: