 Ichida in Upper House calls for returning to postwar principles of peace Japanese Communist party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi took the floor of the House of Councilors on February 26 to grill Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro over peace and people's living conditions, which are the key to Japan's future course. On the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, Ichida reminded the prime minister of how Japan joined the international community following the end of the Second World War. Ichida stressed that the postwar world began by pledging that the type of war of aggression by Japan, Germany, and Italy that killed millions of people shall never be repeated. He said this was the basis for the United Nations Charter and Japan's rebirth with the new Constitution and return to the international community. "Do you recognize this fact?" Ichida raised this question to criticize Koizumi for going against Asia's and the world's historic current toward peace by dispatching the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq and by revising the SDF Law to make overseas operations the SDF's chief mission. The war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution is "an asset shared by Asia and the world as principles governing international relations," Ichida said. On the issue of living standards, Ichida referred to the notion that the Japanese are divided into 'losers' and 'winners', the former being made up of an overwhelming majority of hardworking people, unemployed young people, and elderly people, and the latter a handful of wealthy people. This state of Japanese society is a consequence of Koizumi politics, Ichida said. The Koizumi Cabinet's restructural reform policy benefited only a few major corporations and the wealthy while forcing the great majority to pay 7 trillion yen more in taxes and costs for social services, or 50,000 yen per person, following the 9 trillion yen burden imposed by the Hashimoto Cabinet. Responding to Ichida, Koizumi maintained that the SDF dispatch to Iraq will be continued and that assigning the SDF to chiefly engage in overseas activities will not contradict the Constitution and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC). The prime minister insisted that the 7 trillion yen burden will have no adverse economic effect. Later in the day, JCP Chair Shii Kazuo told reporters that Koizumi should have addressed Ichida's questions. He must earnestly examine what Ichida pointed out and answer them, Shii insisted. (end) |