Ogata meets with Ortega in Nicaragua

Japan Press Weekly

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

Ogata meets with Ortega in Nicaragua

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo on July 20 met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at his office in Managua.

Ogata, who attended events to mark the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution at the invitation of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation, met with Ortega to convey greetings from the JCP leadership.

Ogata said that the JCP regarded the Nicaraguan people's struggle against U.S. interventionist war as a focal issue of the world peoples' struggles to defend and establish the right to national self-determination and that it has always been in solidarity with the FSLN.

Ortega thanked Ogata for Shii's message of congratulations and for Ogata's presence at the events marking the revolution's 30th anniversary as well as for the solidarity and friendship extended by the JCP.

On the same day, the Nicaraguan president told other representatives of overseas political parties who were present at a meeting held to exchange opinions and information that the JCP representatives are taking part in this meeting as the only party from outside of Latin America. He asked Ogata to explain how the global financial crisis has affected Japan.

Ogata said that in Japan, a highly developed capitalist country, the disadvantaged are hardest hit by the present crisis and that the unemployment rate has now reached the highest ever in Japan. He added that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the Japanese economy will grow at a negative rate of six percent, which will be worse than European nations and the United States.

- Akahata, July 23, 2009