JCP policy commission chair reviews 2002

Analyzing Japan's political turmoil in 2002 in an interview program broadcast by ASAHI NEWSTAR on December 17, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission Chair Fudesaka Hideyo stressed how empty Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's policy is.

Fudesaka pointed out that the energetic activities of the Japanese Communist Party have been in sharp contrast with the other political parties which have been in confusion and decline.

Fudesaka particularly referred to the revelation by the JCP of a corruption scandal involving House of Representatives member Suzuki Muneo over the Russian-held northern islands, the JCP's confrontation with the Koizumi "structural reform" policy, and the struggle to foil the wartime legislation.

Referring to changes taking place in local politics, he said that electoral cooperation between the JCP and non-party people has increased this year, such as in the Nagano gubernatorial, and Kumamoto and Amagasaki mayoral elections. Fudesaka said that these achievements paved the way for changing the "ruling bandwagon" politics with the LDP at the center and helped to create a new political trend in the 21st century.

He said that the extraordinary Diet session that ended on December 13 failed to discuss ways to rehabilitate the ailing economy because the government and the ruling parties were inactive. Fudesaka said the JCP demands that the government stop the 3 trillion yen (25 billion dollars) increase in the people's burden for social services, cut budgets for wasteful public works and military expenditure, and increase social services budgets.

On Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's ways of conducting politics, Fudesaka said that his argument on "reform" is itself ill-defined.

Fudesaka said that Koizumi, without a working knowledge of policies or the economy, was elected LDP president and prime minister due to the windfall popular support for his cry that he would either change or disband the LDP. All he could do by taking advantage of his popularity was chant "structural reform." Now the people have realized that his "reform" is ill-defined and harmful, Fudesaka said.

The problem is that opposition parties other than the JCP are likely to lose ground when the government and the ruling parties appear to be set in confrontation. This is because they don't know what major issues they need to take up in opposition to the LDP. It is a natural consequence that these opposition parties are fundamentally the same as the LDP.

The key task is for these opposition parties to establish a clear position in order to confront both the government and the ruling parties.

The JCP, the party that does not side with the "structural reform" policy, can criticize both the prime minister and what he calls "resistance forces." (end)