JCP secretariat head explains JCP economic proposal to chief cabinet secretary

Japanese Communist Party representatives on March 30 visited the government as well as trade union and industrial organizations to explain its emergency economic proposal.

The JCP economic proposal, which was published on March 23, calls for the consumption tax rate to be cut to 3 percent, a freeze on the plan to adversely revise social service systems, regulation on corporate restructuring, and support for small- and medium-sized enterprises as essential measures to get out of the economic recession.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukuda Yasuo, in the Prime Minister's Official Residence, said to JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi that the JCP proposal about the need to support small- and medium-sized enterprises "includes some aspects that agree with the government view," and that "the government will consider the proposal."

Secretary general of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), the class-based national trade union center, expressed their agreement with the proposal, saying that the call for a cut in the consumption tax rate to three percent is a national demand.

Several JCP Dietmembers made similar representations to eight organizations including the Central Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry, Japan. (end)