Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe declares candidacy for LDP president

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Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe declares candidacy for LDP president

Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo on September 1 officially announced his candidacy for the Liberal Democratic Party president. Abe made public his election platform that gives priority to enacting a new constitution as well as a "drastic educational reform."

At a press conference in Hiroshima City, he expressed his intention to take the leadership in having the Diet initiate the revision of the Constitution. By stating, "I want to first work to get the national referendum bill enacted," he showed his strong determination to enact in the next Diet session the bill that will establish a procedure for the revision of the Constitution.

Asked by reporters, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on the same day said, "Abe's remarks and his book show his imprudence and precariousness."

Abe characterizes the preamble to the Constitution as a "written apology to the Allies in WWII," and asserts that Japan needs to abandon the "masochistic view of history." Referring to these remarks, Ichida said, "It is very dangerous to make such remarks and deny that the war Japan waged was a war of aggression."

In the LDP presidential election, three incumbent members of the Koizumi Cabinet, Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo, Foreign Minister Aso Taro, and Finance Minister Tanigaki Sadakazu, will compete as candidates.

Ichida pointed out that whoever is elected as the LDP president and prime minister, the next government will inevitably further promote the mal-administration of the Koizumi Cabinet, because they all insist on maintaining the structural reform policy that has increased the social gap as well as adversely revising the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education.

With regard to the Yasukuni Shrine question, pointing out that none of the three candidates asserts that the prime minister must refrain from visiting the shrine based on a reflection over the past war of aggression and colonial rule, Ichida said, "They cannot advance diplomacy for peace and friendship in Asia."

Ichida said that the JCP will wage a head-on struggle against the LDP policy.
- Akahata, September 2, 2006