August 28, 2024

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko on August 27 said that the JCP sees the next general election as a chance for a big reform aimed at breaking through the Liberal Democratic Party’s old fashioned politics represented by money-politics scandals.

Tamura said this at a gathering of a study group consisting of editorial writers of Kyodo News member companies. She was invited as a guest speaker at the gathering.

Tamura noted that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio as a reason for his decision not to seek reelection as LDP president cited that LDP’s off-the-book slush fund scandal and the cozy ties with the former Unification Church (aka Moonies) “aroused public mistrust”.

Tamura pointed out that the LDP has kept close ties with the Moonies in its campaign against the JCP and gender equality, and that the slush fund scandal revealed how corporate money influences LDP politics. She said, “To have the LDP step down from the ruling party position and to take a scalpel into the LDP-Moonies ties and the off-the-book money scandal will drastically reform the outdated nature of Japan’s politics.” She expressed her determination to make the next general election an election that will put an end to the LDP governance.

Tamura pointed out that for the past 12 years, the Abe, Suga, and Kishida governments pushed the Japanese economy and society into a serious deadlock, while outrageously increasing a dangerous move to turn Japan into a “war-fighting nation”. She said, “In order to promote political reform, the JCP will work hard to achieve a major advance in the next general election through efforts to reach a wide range of people to inform them about the JCP and its policy to build a better society of all.”

Past related article:
> Public anger drives PM Kishida to not run for LDP presidency [August 15, 2024]