Shii urges Hatoyama to protect people’s livelihoods

Japan Press Weekly

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

Shii urges Hatoyama to protect people’s livelihoods

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo used his question time on behalf of the party at the House of Representatives Plenary Session on February 2 to urge Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio to make a drastic change in his policies on key issues, including money scandals, protection of people’s livelihoods, and the U.S. base relocation issue.

The position Hatoyama took in his reply was basically the same as the former government.

Concerning the issue of protecting people’s living, Shii stressed the need to change the direction from the former government.

Stating that it is necessary to call on big businesses to use their huge amounts of internal reserves and excess profits for improving people’s living conditions, Shii proposed that the government should instruct the financial circles to provide full-time positions to temporary workers and should change its pro-business policy to one supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises.

When Shii stated that if the government encouraged large corporations to use their internal reserves for improving people’s living conditions, that it would contribute to revitalizing the economy, Hatoyama only replied that the use of corporate internal reserve is “each corporation’s private decision.”

Responding to Shii’s question about the creation of regulations to ensure fair dealings between large companies and their subcontractors, Hatoyama said, “It is important to make efforts to establish a new rule, if needed.”

About the policy to cut social welfare services, Shii criticized the Hatoyama administration for deciding to postpone abolishing the discriminatory health insurance system for the elderly aged 75 and over, take no measures to reduce the financial burden for medical services, and maintain the “beneficiary-pays principle” of the “self-support” assistance law for disable people. He demanded that the government immediately do away with policies that discriminate against the elderly and the disabled.

In addition, Shii raised the fact that because the former government had increased the burden of medical payments on patients at hospitals, many people avoided attempting to receive medical services. Shii called for a decrease in medial treatment fees which are unusually high compared to other countries.

Hatoyama, however, refused to accept the fact by saying, “I don’t think that people are prevented from receiving necessary medical services.”

Concerning financial resources, Shii demanded that the government do away with “two sanctuaries,” generous tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthy as well as the military budget, and reduce citizens’ anxieties regarding the possibility of tax raises, including a consumption tax increase.

Shii pointed out that the government in its draft budget increases expenditures for the construction of a new U.S. base in Guam although the DPJ insisted before that Japan should not do so. He also criticized the draft budget for keeping the tax rate for stock deal profits very low compared with the U.S. and the U.K.

Plutocratic scandals

The JCP chair pointed out that DPJ Secretary General Ozawa Ichiro’s scandal involves his alleged exploitation of public works projects using the people’s tax money. He argued that the Diet should play its part and work with the judiciary in order to reveal the facts behind the allegation.

‘Relocation’ of U.S. Futenma base

Concerning the mayoral election result in Okinawa’s Nago City in which residents elected a candidate who opposes the construction of a new U.S. base, Shii urged the government to accept the voters’ verdict and withdraw the construction plan.

While admitting that the election result reflects the majority of residents’ will, the prime minister stressed the importance of the U.S. forces’ role as “deterrence” and stated, “Removal (of the U.S. Futenma base) without an alternative facility is impossible in reality.”

- Akahata, February 3, 2010