Metropolitan government promises to consider helping jobless people solve their immediate problems

Japan Press Weekly

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

Metropolitan government promises to consider helping jobless people solve their immediate problems

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government promised to consider providing telephone counseling to those who lost their jobs and places to live after being laid off by large corporations.

A metropolitan government official stated this in response to a question by Japanese Communist Party representative Ueki Koji at the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly plenary session on February 24. He proposed that the metropolitan government take the initiative in providing counseling services for laid off workers regarding their jobs, living conditions, and health.

Ueki cited two recent experiences that he said confirmed the urgent need for the metropolitan government to listen to those who have lost not only their jobs but places to live. One is the "temporary relief center" in Tokyo where more than 500 people took shelter during the New Year holiday period. The other is the recent counseling sessions the JCP provided in Tokyo.

He also demanded that the metropolitan government send its directive to municipalities, a directive that calls for swift approval of application for welfare assistance to those who lost jobs and places to live, and which prevent municipal welfare offices from violating the right to apply.

Ueki requested that the metropolitan government apply the welfare protection law to provide more accommodations and emergency and temporary support centers, and that it make 10,000 public apartments available to temporary workers without jobs and places to stay.

Ueki stressed that Tokyo must give up on the bid to host the 2016 Olympic games that will squander nine trillion yen in tax money for the construction of Tokyo's urban belt highways, and said, "What the Tokyo Metropolitan Government should do above everything else is to protect people's living and jobs, not be an extravagant host to the Olympic Games."

- Akahata, February 25, 2009