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

A majority of signatures for petitions sent to Diet via JCP

Of the 36.2 million signatures in petitions that have been submitted to the Diet during its 164th session that closed recently, the Japanese Communist Party received about 60 percent or 21.13 million signatures, far more than the other parties. The Democratic Party received 8.17 million and the Liberal Democratic Party 3.53 million.

With the ruling LDP and opposition DPJ each submitting bills to the Diet to establish procedures for a national referendum on constitutional revision, the number of signatures bearing opposition to these bills and an adverse revision of the Constitution reached 2.27 million, and the JCP received 80 percent of them. The number of signatures on this particular issue that were collected since 2004 reached 4.34 million.

Of all signatures submitted in petition to the Diet, those calling for better education ranked top with 9.81 million. These petitions included calls for government subsidies for private schools and an early introduction of a class size of less than 30 pupils. Most of them were submitted through the JCP.

In a short period of time after the Diet began discussing the bill for adverse revision of the Fundamental Law of Education, 1.26 million signatures opposing the bill were submitted to the Diet.

The Japan Medical Association and other medical organizations have collected 17.63 million signatures against the government bill to increase elderly patients' payment of costs for medical services. The number of signatures in opposition to adverse medical reform reached 20 million.

The large number of signatures received by the JCP shows the strong ties that exist between JCP Dietmembers and the public demanding better social services and education and in defense of peace Constitution.
- Akahata, June 28, 2006