April 25, 2012
Akutsu Kenji, mayor of Nasushiobara City in Tochigi Prefecture, is eliminating subsidies for public services to a large extent, including for local agriculture and business support, causing anxiety among residents due to the unilateral, high-handed cutbacks.
Akutsu won in the mayoral election in January with full support from the Your Party, and cut the number of subsidized programs by 40% when the new fiscal year started in April. Out of 181 programs, 67 will receive no grants at all.
For example, the city ended the subsidy to an organization for parents of disabled children (300,000 yen), halved the number of free taxi tickets for elderly persons who have difficulty walking (to 20 from the previous 40 tickets), and abolished the program to subsidize households for installing solar power systems (60 million yen).
During the city assembly’s deliberations on the FY2012 budget draft in March, Takaku Koichi of the Japanese Communist Party repeatedly opposed the budget draft because it would cut services connected closely with people’s everyday well-being. Some assemblypersons of other political groups came around to support his position, and the draft was initially rejected in the assembly.
The stymied mayor at the very end of the assembly’s meetings on March 26, allied with Your Party assemblymen and other sympathizers, managed to bulldoze through the budget draft.
Takaku of the JCP said, “I can see the Your Party’s real motive with this budget to disregard the needs of the socially vulnerable. I will make efforts to restore the subsidies working in cooperation with other political groups.”
Akutsu won in the mayoral election in January with full support from the Your Party, and cut the number of subsidized programs by 40% when the new fiscal year started in April. Out of 181 programs, 67 will receive no grants at all.
For example, the city ended the subsidy to an organization for parents of disabled children (300,000 yen), halved the number of free taxi tickets for elderly persons who have difficulty walking (to 20 from the previous 40 tickets), and abolished the program to subsidize households for installing solar power systems (60 million yen).
During the city assembly’s deliberations on the FY2012 budget draft in March, Takaku Koichi of the Japanese Communist Party repeatedly opposed the budget draft because it would cut services connected closely with people’s everyday well-being. Some assemblypersons of other political groups came around to support his position, and the draft was initially rejected in the assembly.
The stymied mayor at the very end of the assembly’s meetings on March 26, allied with Your Party assemblymen and other sympathizers, managed to bulldoze through the budget draft.
Takaku of the JCP said, “I can see the Your Party’s real motive with this budget to disregard the needs of the socially vulnerable. I will make efforts to restore the subsidies working in cooperation with other political groups.”
