Komei shows no reflection over deteriorating nursing-care conditions

Japan Press Weekly

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Komei shows no reflection over deteriorating nursing-care conditions

The former ruling coalition partner Komei Party has kicked off its nationwide speech tour for the upcoming House of Councilors election. Chief Representative Yamaguchi Natsuo in a street speech in Tokyo on April 4 said, “Only the Komei Party can restore the pension, medical, nursing-care, and other systems for the people’s living conditions.”

However, who is the one to be blamed for causing the current harsh conditions in the medical and nursing-care fields? As the ruling partner of the Liberal Democratic Party, Komei continuously cut annual budget growth for social services by 220 billion yen and installed the discriminatory medical insurance system for the elderly aged 75 and older. It reduced the remuneration for nursing-care treatments in 2002 and 2006 by 4.7 percent in total, leading to the worsening of medical and nursing-care workers’ working conditions. By adversely revising the nursing-care system, it restricted the use of nursing-care services by patients with mild symptoms.

“The nursing care system is a relatively new system. It has been only 10 years since it was established,” said Yamaguchi. Although he admitted that many problems are showing up in the nursing-care field, he never admitted his party’s responsibility for helping to cause them.

Yamaguchi went on to say, “Komei has the strength to respond to voters who are not satisfied with the two major parties. Now is the time for us to exert its presence as the party representing the people’s viewpoints.”

While trying to present itself as the third political force, Komei cannot erase what it had done as the ruling party.

- Akahata, April 5, 2010