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

JCP calls for reducing hardships by redrafting 2006 budget

The Japanese Communist Party on February 20 requested that the government recompile the budget for fiscal 2006 in order to reduce the hardships the public has to endure and lessen the social gaps that are widening under the "structural reform" policy. The budget must be one of defending jobs and social services.

The request was published by JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi at a news conference on the same day.

Ichida said that unless present government policies are changed, imposing a total burden of 13 trillion yen on the public over the next 5 years, the Japanese economy and society will experience serious difficulties in the future. The JCP calls for the tax increase plan to be withdrawn while incomes are declining, and social services improved not curtailed. The JCP calls for the wasteful public works projects and preferential tax breaks for large corporations to be reviewed to fund the necessary budgetary overhaul.

The JCP also calls for the withdrawal of the plan to increase burdens on the public for the relocation and strengthening of U.S. military bases, and for greater efforts to achieve disarmament.
- Akahata, February 21, 2006