Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro delivered his policy speech on January 31 in the joint session of the Diet, the Japanese parliament. He declared that he will continue to promote "structural reform" focusing on swift write-offs of bad loans, discuss issues of a consumption-tax rate increase, and have wartime bills enacted without delay. But he mentioned nothing about restricting corporate donations to politicians.
Later in the day, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo described Koizumi's policy speech as an empty composition.
Prime Minister Koizumi intends to force the people to shoulder a heavier burden, ruin small- and- medium-seized businesses, and discourage consumers from spending, and all this will accelerate the on-going deflation, Shii pointed out.
Although the people want a ban on political donations by corporations on government contracts for public works projects, Koizumi shows no signs of trying to deal with the matter at all.
In addition, the prime minister is only showing his submissive attitude to the United States instead of trying to call on it not to launch a war on Iraq, Shii added. (end)
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