June 25, 2013

Akahata editorial

In the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on June 23, the Japanese Communist Party obtained 17 seats and became the third largest party in the assembly. We’d like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all who have supported us.

The JCP successfully increased its seats thanks to voters who counted on the party to improve their living conditions and economy, to realize a departure from nuclear power generation, and to defend the Constitution. They also evaluated the JCP’s capability as the only party to prevent the Abe Cabinet’s “Abenomics” economic policy from destroying their living conditions. We will make the utmost effort to realize our election platform as well as make an advance in the upcoming Upper House election.

LDP vs. JCP

The result of the Tokyo Metropolitan election illustrates the fact that the JCP is the only party capable of confronting the “all-are-ruling parties” force in the metropolitan assembly in addition to the “LDP vs. JCP” political structure in the national Diet. The Democratic Party of Japan fell into fourth place as a result of its continuous breach of campaign promises and betrayal of the public both in the national and the Tokyo Metropolitan administrations. According to exit polls conducted by media on the voting day, many voters who are critical of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s economic policies voted for the JCP. “The DPJ, which has long been supported by anti-LDP voters, has now all but disappeared,” according to commentary carried in the Asahi Shimbun.

It has been 16 years since 1997, the last time when the JCP rapidly increased the number of metropolitan seats held. Going through the two anti-JCP campaigns trumpeted in the last decade, “a choice between two major parties” and “the third pole,” the Japanese political structure has shifted to a “confrontation between the LDP and the JCP.” These anti-communist campaigns do not work anymore because the basis for the old-style LDP politics has been undermined. The latest advance of the JCP is the result of its successfully overcoming the two major attacks.

More and more people have expressed their anxieties and complaints regarding the anti-people policies carried out at both national and local levels by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Tokyo Governor Inose Naoki since they inaugurated their administrations six months ago. In an opinion poll released by Nikkei Shimbun just after the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on June 23, the percentage of respondents opposing the “Abenomics” economic policy increased to 25% by 7 percentage points from the previous survey in May, while the percentage of those supporting the policy decreased by 7 percentage points to 55%. It is difficult for the LDP and Komei parties to maintain their high approval rates based on Abe’s “three-arrows” economic strategy.

The Abe government, ahead of elections for the Tokyo assembly and the Upper House, adopted a growth strategy and a basic policy for economic and fiscal management with the aim to make Japan “the most business friendly country in the world” through regulatory reform. It has also accelerated a move to reduce taxes on large corporations while imposing a higher consumption tax rate on the general public. Announcing its policy to utilize nuclear power generation, the Abe government is taking an aggressive stance toward the reactivation of idled nuclear reactors and the export of nuclear power plants. The LDP has incorporated its intention to revise the Constitution in the House of Councilors election platform. The JCP has a significant role in working to realize people’s demands in the Diet as well as in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.

JCP’s major advance in elections will open the way to a better future for Japan

The July Upper House election, the first national election since the current Abe Cabinet was inaugurated, will give voters an opportunity to deliver a verdict on Abe’s policies regarding economic conditions, nuclear power generation, and the Constitution. The ruling LDP and Komei parties, which occupy two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives, seek to win majority control in the Upper House as well. As a political party which stands against Abe’s arrogant anti-people policies and presents prospects for fundamental solutions to issues related to people’s livelihoods, the Japanese economy, nuclear power generation, and the Constitution, it is important for the JCP to achieve a major advance in the upcoming election in order to protect people’s lives and living conditions and open the way to the future transformation of Japan’s politics.