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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Zenroren forms task force for a new Japan

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) on December 7 inaugurated a task force to strengthen the labor struggle to stop Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's quest to achieve a "smaller government" through shifting heavier burdens onto people and establish a new Japan that provides reliable public affairs and services.

The Zenroren task force will continue to work until the House of Councilors election in July 2007.

Focusing on the "destruction of security and safety, widening of economic disparity, and abdication of government responsibilities for municipalities" promoted by the Koizumi government, the task force will promote a campaign to rouse public opinion.

Zenroren President Kumagai Kanemichi at an inauguration meeting in Tokyo said, "Let's go head-to-head against Koizumi's structural reform policy and actively stir up public opinion to establish a new Japan!"

To attract public attention, the task force plans to hold workshops in workplaces and communities, deliver leaflets, and make commercials and a film to unmask the "smaller government" scheme and inform the public of the important roles of public services.

Using whistle blowers' testimonies in workplaces such as Japan Railways with a fatal derailment and building-related companies that falsified data concerning quake-proof apartment buildings, the task force will reveal to the public how deregulations have disregarded safety.

The headquarters also called on a wider range of intellectuals, including writers and lawyers, to form an "experts' panel for a new Japan."
- Akahata, December 8, 2005