Rally in the Diet calls for blocking wartime legislation

Calling on the public to immediately rise in actions against wartime legislation, about 350 people took part in an urgent inner parliamentary rally on January 25.

Shii Kazuo (Japanese Communist Party chair), Doi Takako (Social Democratic Party chair), Ohashi Kyosen (Democratic Party of Japan), Nakamura Atsuo (independent), and other Dietmembers attended the rally.

Watanabe Osamu, professor at Hitotsubashi University, stated that enacting wartime laws will be tantamount to revising the Constitution, and much efforts are needed to organize a public movement against the plan.

Wartime legislation, JCP Shii said, is an attempt to mobilize the public for U.S. interventionist wars in Asia. He called on the participants to organize an opposition struggle from the grass-roots.

Representatives of youth and women's groups, and labor unions expressed their determination to organize anti-wartime law campaign as wide as possible. (end)