JCP town mayor reelected
A communist town head won his second term by a margin of 20 votes late last year. Hashimoto Tsuyoshi, head of Biwa Town in Shiga Prefecture, is one of 11 Japanese Communist Party member municipality heads. The Akahata Sunday Edition in its January 11 issue reports how he won his re-election in defiance of fierce attacks from his challenger.
At the New Year gathering at the town office on January 5, in which Hashimoto was speaking, most town assembly members tried to avoid the topic of the December election. They were obliged to do so because 10 out of the 11 assembly members supported the ex-deputy mayor, Hashimoto's contender. There is only one JCP member in the town legislature.
In the December 21 election, Hashimoto, recommended by the Association for a Clean and Comfortable Town, received 2,307 votes defeating ex-deputy town head Nakagawa Gohei by a margin of only 20 votes.
Hashimoto was elected to his first term in the previous election four years ago. Two years before that, Hashimoto lost his seat in the town assembly after serving five terms and became the JCP district committee chair.
Four years ago
In the 2000 town head election, the conservative town assembly chair announced his candidacy in a bid to defend the town administration from "dark forces". However, this man gave up running in the election after his family members were harassed by unknown people. As a last resort, his supporters asked Hashimoto to run. They believed that only the JCP could fight against vested interests and dark forces representing those interests.
The day before the official announcement of the election, Hashimoto accepted the request with a determination to fight against those dark forces. He was elected.
Achievements in the four years
During his first term, Hashimoto definitely rejected all unjust requests from special interest groups and established a clean and impartial administration in which the townspeople were the key players.
Under Mayor Hashimoto, the town clearly severed ties with an interest group called the Buraku (discriminated hamlets) Liberation League (Kaido), and the town's 3-million-yen budget for Kaidofs special interests is now used for townspeople's daily needs.
The election promise of free-of-charge medical services started with infants up to three-year old and in August 2002 was expanded to cover all pre-school children. Taking this as a cue, all the municipalities in the district, a city and 12 towns, adopted the system of free medical services for pre-school children.
Margin of 20 votes
In the December 2003 election, a housewife complained, "Why should we force out a mayor without any motion of no-confidence or recall when we find no fault in his government?"
Just before the announcement of the election, the deputy mayor abruptly tendered his resignation to the town assembly and expressed his candidacy. His camp did not publish any policy statements and instead concentrated on pointing at Hashimoto simply for being a JCP member. Assembly members and ward heads desperately recruited supporters in speech meetings held in 28 communities.
Supporters of Hashimoto's reelection set up a volunteer group made up of people of his generation, apart from the citizens' association. Its leader, Nishio Yoshibumi, said, "The margin of 20 votes actually means 200 votes, as the ten assembly members supported the opponent".
Hisako Akino, JCP assembly member, said, "In the previous election, both conservative and progressive forces struggled together to overcome the political crisis of the town. This time around, major conservative groups banded together to force out the JCP mayor. It is important that Hashimoto won, because citizens supported his achievements in his four years in office."
Mayor Hashimoto said, "Many people thanked me for my reelection as a big new year gift. I want to promote a town administration in which the government hears clearly the opinions of the townspeople, the key players." (end)