JCP in Tokyo Assembly urges governor to establish policy of supporting smaller businesses

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

JCP in Tokyo Assembly urges governor to establish policy of supporting smaller businesses

At a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly plenary session on February 16, Japanese Communist Party representative Kono Yurie pointed out that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has cut back its budget for small- and medium-sized enterprises by 30 percent in the past eight years, and criticized Governor Ishihara Shintaro for neglecting smaller businesses.

She demanded that the governor establish a policy of supporting smaller businesses as a pillar in the overall metropolitan government policy.

While industries such as financial services, office support business, and information technology firms are flourishing under Ishihara's "world city strategy", smaller companies of manufacturing, and local and traditional industries that local economies heavily rely on are deteriorating.

A survey of business conditions of small retail shops conducted by a traders' organization showed that 70 percent of shop owners have experienced a decrease in sales. Respondents said that they are unable to have future prospects.

Kono urged the metropolitan government to instruct ward, city, and town governments in Tokyo to apply a system allowing the reduction of and exemption from national health insurance premium payments to self-employed people unable to pay.

She criticized Ishihara for prioritizing large-scale urban development projects and the construction of skyscrapers and for cutting back the budgets for public works projects close to residents' living needs such as metropolitan government-run housing complexes and nursing care facilities, thus curtailing any new business chances for small-sized companies.
- Akahata, February 17, 2007