January 15, 2015
Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki on January 14 issued a statement criticizing the 2015 budget draft, which Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s Cabinet earlier on the day approved, as anti-people.
The general account budget for the coming fiscal year will total a record-high 96.3 trillion yen, up by 0.5% from the initial budget for FY 2014.
Yamashita noted that in the 2015 budget, the government plans to implement adverse reforms in social welfare programs, such as cuts in pension benefit payments, an increase in elderly patients’ share of costs at hospitals, heavier burdens on nursing-care service users, and cuts in welfare benefit payments. It is unacceptable for the government to impose further burdens on the general public since it already forced them to shoulder higher sales taxes under the pretext of improving the social welfare system, said Yamashita.
Citing that the largest-ever 4.98 trillion yen defense budget includes the cost for purchasing stealth fighter jets and Osprey aircraft, Yamashita pointed out, “This budget allocation highlights the government’s determined stance to turn Japan into a war-capable nation.”
The JCP secretary general condemned the government for increasing the allocation of funds for the construction of a new U.S. base in Okinawa’s Henoko district by 81 times from the 2014 budget.
Yamashita stressed that the government drew up the 2015 budget with the aim to ease tax burdens on large corporations whose profits hit all-time high thanks to the weaker yen, promote large-scale public works projects, and maintain nuclear power generation, while paying scant attention to the improvement of people’s livelihoods. He said that this budget will bring about a further deterioration in people’s living conditions and wider social disparities.
He expressed his determination to fight back by saying, “In collaboration with people’s struggles and JCP’s activities in the Diet, the JCP will work hard to realize a people-oriented budget.”
The general account budget for the coming fiscal year will total a record-high 96.3 trillion yen, up by 0.5% from the initial budget for FY 2014.
Yamashita noted that in the 2015 budget, the government plans to implement adverse reforms in social welfare programs, such as cuts in pension benefit payments, an increase in elderly patients’ share of costs at hospitals, heavier burdens on nursing-care service users, and cuts in welfare benefit payments. It is unacceptable for the government to impose further burdens on the general public since it already forced them to shoulder higher sales taxes under the pretext of improving the social welfare system, said Yamashita.
Citing that the largest-ever 4.98 trillion yen defense budget includes the cost for purchasing stealth fighter jets and Osprey aircraft, Yamashita pointed out, “This budget allocation highlights the government’s determined stance to turn Japan into a war-capable nation.”
The JCP secretary general condemned the government for increasing the allocation of funds for the construction of a new U.S. base in Okinawa’s Henoko district by 81 times from the 2014 budget.
Yamashita stressed that the government drew up the 2015 budget with the aim to ease tax burdens on large corporations whose profits hit all-time high thanks to the weaker yen, promote large-scale public works projects, and maintain nuclear power generation, while paying scant attention to the improvement of people’s livelihoods. He said that this budget will bring about a further deterioration in people’s living conditions and wider social disparities.
He expressed his determination to fight back by saying, “In collaboration with people’s struggles and JCP’s activities in the Diet, the JCP will work hard to realize a people-oriented budget.”
