JCP is received favorably by small manufacturers

Tokyo's Ota Ward has a major machinery and metal industry district with many small factories. It is also known as an area in which many skilled workers have produced state-of-the-art products, including the tips of space rockets.

Like other Japanese industrial districts, Ota Ward is hard hit by the economic recession. The Japanese Communist Party's proposal for economic recovery is now gaining support from the district's manufacturers.

To encourage ailing manufacturers, the JCP, the Democratic Commerce and Industry Organizations (Minsho), and trade unions formed a group to have discussions with the ward's 6,000 factory owners to discuss how to overcome the economic difficulties. They have so far visited more than 1,700 factory operators.

In Japan today, the Koizumi Cabinet is calling on banks to dispose of their bad loans in the shortest possible time. Smaller businesses like Ota's are assessed by banks as not eligible for bank loans even though they have good technologies; the result being bankruptcies.

The JCP, as a member of the group, visited the district's manufacturers to explain to them the JCP's economic policy calling for a change of cold-hearted politics against small manufacturers.

The JCP's proposal has been received favorably by many manufacturers in the district. A factory owner said, "The organization has given me courage." Another owner said, "Until hearing your proposal, I didn't know where to focus my anger."

In November 2001, under Koizumi's structural reform, the Financial Services Agency forced the district's two credit unions out of business.

A number of factories had been borrowing money from credit unions that went bankrupt. The group made up of the JCP, Minsho, and unions, along with credit union staff and JCP Dietmembers strove to find banks that would take over the loans. As a result, 90 percent of them were saved. This experience has helped to increase favorable sentiments toward the JCP. (end)