JCP Dietmembers hear from major electronics companies in Osaka on their
restructuring plans

Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers on October 12 visited two
Osaka-based major electronics companies to examine their corporate
restructuring plans.

The JCP Dietmembers felt that the restructuring plans of Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co. and Sanyo Electric, which have a great bearing on
the regional economy, must not be left unchecked in the light of the
nation's record unemployment rate of 5 percent.

Noro Teruhisa, Matsushita's public relations director, said that the
company plan is to save 60 billion yen by cutting 5,000 employees in the
distribution sector of home electric appliances. He said the process is part
of their structural reform based on "destruction and creation."

JCP House of Representatives member Yoshii Hidekatsu argued that major
companies competing among themselves in corporate restructuring will further
hinder the national economy from engaging in a sound development course.

Handing in the JCP proposal against major corporate restructuring and
calling for a popular struggle to defend jobs, the JCP parliamentarians
pointed out that major corporations have a social responsibility to defend
jobs and regional economies. (end)