JCP speech assemblies have great success throughout Japan

More than 50,000 people took part in the Japanese Communist Party speech assemblies in ten cities throughout the country in the first half of June.

One month before the House of Councilors election campaign officially starts, the JCP proposal for political change is now attracting the public as an effective alternative to the Koizumi Cabinet's "reform" plan which will force the people into paying more.

On June 11, about 9,000 people in four locations in Kanagawa Prefecture listened to JCP Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo. Shii's speech in Yokohama City was broadcast live via a communication satellite. Among the audience were conservative town heads, city administration officials, local agricultural commissioners, and housing company presidents.

In Shizuoka City on June 10, JCP Central Committee Chair Fuwa Tetsuzo spoke at a JCP public assembly with 4,500 people attending, the largest number the JCP had attracted in the prefecture for the last 20 years. They included many young couples and local small post office managers, who usually have close connections with the Liberal Democratic Party.

In Kobe City in Hyogo Prefecture, 4,500 people crowded onto the street to listen to JCP speeches. About 8,000 people gathered in Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture where JCP local committees invited about 1,200 citizens' organizations to the speech assembly, with 10,000 people filling the big hall which was used as an ice arena during the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games.

A variety of people spoke at speech assemblies. In Chiba City and Yokohama City, Kodama Yuji, who has played a leading role in the leprosy lawsuit plaintiffs groups, talked about his indomitable struggle as a JCP member since 1955. When he said that he finally recovered his human dignity, the assembly halls resounded with thunderous applause.

Among other speakers were the former president of a Prefectural Union of Agricultural Co-operatives, a fishermen's cooperative association leader, a former secretary of a prefectural political league of the real estate industry, all of which are under the strong influence of the LDP. Also, a marriage consultant, a coffee house owner, a priest of the United Church of Christ in Japan, and chief priests of Buddhist temples of the Tendai and Jodo denominations spoke. (end)