New Japan Women’s Association has day of action calling for life free of anxieties

Japan Press Weekly

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

New Japan Women’s Association has day of action calling for life free of anxieties

Standing firm against the merciless cutbacks in social welfare services, the New Japan Women’s Association (Shin-fujin) on December 3 held a day of action to make Japanese women’s call for the “defense of living standards and jobs” clearly heard by the government.

Holding banners and signs, about 150 participants made their appeals using a loudspeaker in front of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.

A mother of 3- and 6-year-old girls spoke about the recent incident in which tainted imported rice had been used for school lunch programs, “I want my kids to eat fresh and safe foods. So, the government should stop importing foreign rice and take measures to make sure that our food is safe.”

A 73-year-old woman said, “It is a government responsibility to provide us with comfortable living conditions until our last day of life. I want the government to immediately abolish the discriminative healthcare insurance program for people aged 75 and over.”

Participants, then, made representations to the health and welfare ministry as well as the education ministry, and held a rally in the Diet.

At the rally, Shin-fujin President Takada Kimiko called on the participants to increase actions to make Japanese women’s earnest demands clearly heard in the Diet.

Japanese Communist Party members of the Diet also took part in the rally and received 255, 000 signatures of a petition calling for a retraction of the idea to increase the consumption tax as well as other taxes, a withdrawal of the extended anti-terrorism special measures law, and improvement in budgets for social services, child-rearing, and education.

In a meeting with health and welfare ministry officials, 23 participants demanded that the ministry provide free checkups for pregnant women, improve perinatal care, leave no children without health insurance because their parents cannot afford to pay the national healthcare insurance premiums, and cancel the plan to cut child-rearing allowances.

A mother who came from Osaka said, “It costs a lot to raise children. Please, do not reduce child-care allowances for single-mother households!”

- Akahata, December 4, 2008