December 7, 2021

The 207th extraordinary session of the Diet was convened on December 6 and will last 16 days. Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo spoke at a JCP Dietmembers’ general assembly held on the same day in advance of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s policy speech.

Shii stressed that amid raising public concerns over the COVID-19 omicron variant, it is necessary to improve the nation’s border measures together with improvements in the testing capacity and medical preparedness. Regarding the COVID vaccination campaign, Shii said that the need is for the government to decide on accelerating the rollout of booster shots while carrying on its work to ensure domestic vaccine supplies and the safety of vaccines.

At the same time, Shii expressed his determination to urge the government to fulfill its international commitment to address the shameful vaccine inequality between wealthy and poor countries.

Shii noted that the Kishida government-drafted supplementary budget for FY2021 contains a record military spending of 773.8 billion yen. He stressed that combined with the initial allocations, the military budget reached an all-time high of six trillion yen, which is an unprecedented level of funding for a military buildup. Shii referred to news reports that PM Kishida in his policy speech intends to call for Diet discussions on Japan’s possession of the “capability to attack enemy bases”. He said, “The JCP will firmly oppose Kishida’s policy of further militarization as it will pursue a dangerous course toward creating a war-fighting nation and gravely weakening constitutionalism.”

Furthermore, Shii pointed out that in tandem with Kishida’s dangerous moves, there are stepped-up moves toward a revision of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution. He called on JCP Dietmembers to play a leading role in grassroots movements seeking to protect Article 9 and make the best use of the Constitution to prevent war and promote diplomacy.