300 Tokyo people call for restoration of welfare services

About 300 people converged on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office on June 4 to demand that slashed welfare services be restored and that nursing care insurance contributions and payments for services be made exempt for the needy.

The 5-day session, the last part of the June metropolitan assembly, started on the same day. In the opening session, Governor Ishihara Shintaro stated that he will proceed with reductions in medical and welfare services and pursue further cuts.

At the metropolitan government office entrance, the Japanese Communist Party Metropolitan Assembly Members Group promised the 300 participants that the JCP will take up their wish in the last session discussion.

The Liberal Democratic Party, the Komei Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party of Japan had broken their election promise by shifting to vote for cuts in welfare services which abandon the needy. Referring to the distressed living conditions of many Tokyo residents, Akita Kakuo, head of the JCP Assembly members' group, expressed his determination to take the initiative in passing judgment on those parties in the June 24 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election.

In the election, the JCP will take up the restoration of welfare services as a major issue in the election campaign. (end)