JCP Ichida criticizes Koizumi's "structural reform" as anti-people policy

The Liberal Democratic Party on April 24 elected Koizumi Jun'ichiro, former Health and Welfare minister, as its president to succeed to Mori Yoshiro as prime minister.

As the election of Koizumi as LDP president was almost certain, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on April 23 said that a government likely to be formed by Koizumi will be a very dangerous and reactionary one.

Specifically referring to "structural reform" which Koizumi calls for as a centerpiece of his "agenda, " Ichida at a news conference on April 23 said that what Koizumi is trying to do is to introduce the law of the jungle and encourage corporations to further their restructuring aided by deregulation.

Ichida told reporters to beware of the word "reform" when it is spoken by LDP people like Koizumi, referring to the fact that the LDP introduced the single-seat constituency system and the government subsidy to political parties in the name of "political reform," and the consumption tax in the name of "economic reform."

The need now is to carry out a fiscal reform through a correction of the upside-down expenditure of "50 trillion yen for public works projects and 20 trillion yen for social welfare," Ichida said.

Ichida also referred to Koizumi's call for a constitutional revision and support for cabinet ministers' official visits to Yasukuni Shrine, a military and religious institution before and during WWII at which those who died for the emperor during the war of aggression were enshrined as the "heroic dead." Koizumi is "very hawkish," Ichida added. (end)