Stop consumption tax increase and adverse revision! -- JCP leaders appeal

On October 10, several hours after Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro dissolved the House of Representatives for a general election, Japanese Communist Party Central Committee Chair Fuwa Tetsuzo and JCP Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo gave speeches to call for a major JCP advance in the November 9 election.

Speaking before an audience of more than 3,000, Fuwa criticized the Liberal Democratic Party and financial circles for openly calling for a major consumption tax rate increase and a constitutional revision. "Both plans will have disastrous bearings on the well-being of the Japanese people and peace," he said and called on voters to use their ballot to stop them.

Fuwa also criticized the opposition Democratic Party of Japan for giving a helping hand to the LDP's political agenda by failing to express the slightest objection to these plans.

JCP Executive Committee Chair Shii denounced the Koizumi Cabinet for its subservience in foreign and security policy to the United States as shown by its full support for the U.S.-led Iraq war. He specifically stressed its opposition to the planned dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.

Shii called on citizens to "vote for the JCP, the only party that presents alternatives to LDP policies." (end)