JCP Ichida criticizes new Abe Cabinet

   Concerning the new Abe Cabinet formed on August 27, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi at a news conference on the same day in the Diet Building said as follows:

   Prime Minister Abe himself admitted the need of a sweeping reshuffle of his cabinet lineup and party leadership. However, the very person who must be replaced will remain in power. Under the circumstances, there can be no personnel shakeup in the Liberal Democratic Party leadership and the cabinet. So, there is a basic contradiction in the fact that Mr. Abe remains as the prime minister. The cabinet lineup also remains unchanged in the sense that only rightists and hawks who are advocating constitutional revision were assembled and appointed to key posts.

   The LDP suffered a crushing defeat in the House of Councilors election because the public delivered a severe verdict on the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties’ basic policy lines of “structural reform” that have increased poverty and social disparities and of the “breaking away from the postwar regime” that will force the public to “break away” from the Constitution, peace, and democracy, Japan’s underlying principles established after WWII. Without reflecting on this, the person who must be replaced is arrogantly staying put, while talking about a “radical change.”

   In response to the voters’ judgment in the House of Councilors election, we will engage in the Diet deliberations in a way that only the JCP can in order to fulfill our election promises and squarely confront the Abe Cabinet.

- Akahata, August 28, 2007