All JCP candidates elected to city assembly in Tokyo
Six Japanese Communist Party incumbent members of the Nishitokyo City Assembly were returned in the election on December 22. The election was the first since the new city with a population of 180,000 was established through a merger of two cities.
Thirty-nine candidates contested over 36 seats, 12 fewer than the total number of seats the two city assemblies had before the merger. This election was seen as a preliminary stage of the simultaneous local elections scheduled for next April.
The ruling parties, including the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties, as well as some other parties which promote the policy of increasing the health insurance premiums and sewage charges, kept silent over their undemocratic politics in the campaign.
The JCP countered this by calling on citizens to stop the increase of such charges and use taxes to improve living conditions and welfare services.
The Komei Party and its parent religious organization Soka Gakkai were furious in attacking the JCP by using such abusive slogans as "The city assembly needs no communist member." Shouting or whispering such slogans, they delivered anti-JCP handbills to residents.
Such issues as the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea, and accidents at democratic medical institutions in other cities were used in their anti- JCP demagogy. They continued delivering slanderous handbills till early on the morning of election day.
JCP candidates, together with JCP members and supporters, delivered handbills titled, "Do you need a party of demagogy which has no policy to present to voters?" The JCP worked hard to let voters know the activities its assembly members have been carrying out to help citizens in such ways as equipping railway stations with escalators and elevators.
The JCP got 7,622 votes or 12.5 percent, a 2-point increase from the 2001 House of Councilors proportional representation constituency election, though it fell short the 15.4 percent in the previous assembly election. (end)