JCP delegation led by Shii to attend 5th ICAPP

Japan Press Weekly

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

JCP delegation led by Shii to attend 5th ICAPP

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii will head a JCP delegation to the Fifth International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) to be held September 24-26 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

The ICAPP, established in 2000 in Manila, has developed as a forum with most political parties in the Asia-Pacific region, ruling as well as opposition, attending.

The JCP first participated in the ICAPP in 2002.

After the ICAPP, the JCP delegation will visit Semipalatinsk City which used to be a major nuclear test site of the former Soviet Union.

When Shii announced his plan to visit Kazakhstan in his speech at the public assembly marking the 87th anniversary of the JCP, he referred to the western Asian country as a country that declared itself nuclear-weapons free after closing the nuclear test site in the course of achieving independence in 1991 from the Soviet Union.

In the speech, he expressed hope to discuss with other participants ways of cooperation for peace in Asia and the rest of the world, including the issue of nuclear weapons abolition.

The JCP delegation will include Ogata Yasuo, JCP vice chair, and Morihara Kimitoshi, ICP International Bureau deputy director.

- Akahata, September 20, 2009