May 28, 2016

Local opposition parties in Kagawa Prefecture, southwestern Japan, will jointly support a Japanese Communist Party candidate in the single-seat constituency there in this summer’s Upper House election. This is the first time that a JCP candidate in the upcoming national election will be backed by other opposition parties.

JCP candidate Tanabe Ken’ichi and a representative of a local civic group calling for the scrapping of the war legislation signed a memorandum on May 27 proclaiming that they will work together in the election campaign. The People’s Life Party already endorsed Tanabe and the Social Democratic Party also expressed support for him. Meanwhile, the largest opposition Democratic Party withdrew its candidate in the electoral district.

The signed memorandum states that the joint candidate will work to fulfill the following three goals: abolition of the unconstitutional national security legislation; restoration of constitutionalism in Japan’s politics (including the revocation of the 2014 Abe Cabinet decision allowing Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense); and promotion of policies to protect basic human rights.

At a press conference in the prefectural office building, Kondo Koji, the civil group representative and former president of Kagawa University, said, “I’m very pleased that we’ve reached this agreement. However, this is just a step forward. We’ll fight together to help the candidate implement the campaign promises once elected.”

Tanabe said, “Through our campaign, I want voters to feel that their ballot can actually change politics. I’ll make an all-out effort to respond to citizens’ expectations.”

Past related article:
> Koike: let’s increase united efforts between citizens and opposition parties to restore constitutionalism [May 3, 2016]