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

JCP protests against setting up special committee on education law in Lower House

The ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties on May 11 used their majority in the House of Representatives to establish a special committee as a shortcut to the adverse revision of the Fundamental Law of Education. The Japanese Communist, Democratic, and Social Democratic parties voted against.

In the Lower House steering committee meeting that preceeded the plenary session, JCP Kokuta Keiji pointed out that the Fundamental Law of Education is as important as the Constitution and emphasized, "Discussion on such an important law should not be done without being backed by the public."

Kokuta criticized the government and ruling parties for arbitrarily rushing to establish the special committee in order to enact the bill to revise the education law in the latter half of the current Diet session that will end on June 16.

Later in the day, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at a press conference also denounced the government for arbitrarily setting up the special committee to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education.

Shii criticized the government for intending to overhaul the Fundamental Law of Education. Specifically, the bill calls for more than 20 items of "virtue," including "love of the nation," and urges teachers and the public to achieve this goal. "This amounts to infringing upon the fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the constitution," Shii stated.

Stressing that the Fundamental Law of Education is often referred to as the Constitution for Education, Shii criticized the government and expressed the JCP's determination to do all it can to block the bill's passage through the Diet.

On the same day, participants in a meeting held in Tokyo at the call of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) established a national liaison council to block the Fundamental Law of Education revision. The council calls for organizing activities, including major street campaigns, dialogues, holding symposia, and collecting more than one million signatures in petition to the Diet in opposition to the bill.

Zenroren President Kumagai Kanemichi chairs the council.
- Akahata, May 12, 2006