Local credit unions urgently rally at JCP call

To discuss how to defend regional financial institutions from the government financial policy which caused 56 credit union failures last year, the Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers Group held an emergency assembly on April 17 in the Diet building.

Over 140 people from local credit unions took part in the meeting to exchange information. A member of Funabashi Credit Union in Chiba Prefecture said that the Financial Services Agency's inappropriate application of its inspection manual to the local credit union made the 70-year old institution go bankrupt.

A participant from Ota Ward in Tokyo, well known for its network of small-sized high-skilled machinery producers, reported that small producers have developed a movement opposing the Koizumi policy as destructive to the manufacturing industry, supported by people of all classes and groups.

A reporter from Iwate Prefecture said that through negotiations, 143 loans need not be sent to the Resolution and Collection Corporation (RCC).

A professor of Shizuoka University said that the ongoing financial inspections of credit unions are intended to bust local financial institutions by forcing them to come under the rule of market forces.

Speaking on behalf of the Japanese Communist Party, JCP acting Secretariat Head Fudesaka Hideyo said that the JCP in parliament discussions on the question and regional struggles have achieved certain results. Part of the results is seen in a smaller number of failed small businesses and a new draft manual on loans for small- and medium-sized businesses, he said.

Izumi Yasuhiro, Central Executive Committee chair of the National Federation of Credit Union Employees Unions, called on a wide-ranging movement to be developed to defend regional financial institutions. (end)