Shii calls for economic policy change to help small businesses and create stable jobs

Shii Kazuo, Japanese Communist Party chair, participated in an NHK political debate broadcast on June 27 and emphasized the need for an economic policy that helps improve living standards.

While Koizumi Jun'ichiro, prime minister and Liberal Democratic Party president, and Okada Katsuya, Democratic Party of Japan president, apparently competed for a "faster structural reform", Shii said that large corporations have gained profits at the expense of working people and small businesses.

He said, "Bank loans to small businesses have been reduced by 50 trillion yen in the last three years under the Koizumi Cabinet, destroying the wage and employment systems, so that wages and jobs for workers are facing a crisis. A major car manufacturer with over 1 trillion yen in net profit is imposing a 30 percent unit price cut on its suppliers and other subcontractors."

Shii also pointed out that under the government policy of encouraging corporate restructuring, 4 million full-time workers are being replaced by part-time and other contingent workers, and that the average income of salaried households experienced a loss of 680,000 yen during the last six years.

Shii said that the government must stop encouraging corporate restructuring, order corporations to correct the long working hours and remove unpaid overtime work, and help increase the number of full-time jobs.

"Prime Minister Koizumi has wrongly blamed young people's lack of willingness to take jobs for their difficulty in finding jobs," he added. (end)