Koizumi failed to answer key questions: Shii

Asked by reporters to comment on Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's policy speech on January 19, Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo said, "The speech was lengthy and empty. Koizumi failed to provide responsible answers to people's anxieties and needs."

"On the dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, many Japanese people are worrying that the SDF personnel may kill or be killed in Iraq, but Koizumi in his speech only defended the anti-constitutional dispatch plan under the pretext of the need to 'fight against terrorists' without explaining about questions relating to the Constitution and the world demand for peace," he said.

Pointing out that Koizumi's policy speech barely referred to a plan to adversely revise the pension scheme that will shift heavier burdens onto the people, Shii criticized the Koizumi Cabinet for refusing to take a responsible attitude and instead forcing the people to endure further undemocratic policies.

Shii said that Koizumi's speech symbolized the dead end his policies have reached. (end)