October 14, 2024

With the start of the official campaign period for the October 27 general election approaching in two days, Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko on October 13 appeared on TV programs and debated with other party leaders regarding the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush fund scandal and other key issues in the general election.

On a Fuji TV’s news-talk program, “Sunday Report The Prime”, Tamura grilled LDP President and Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru about the slush fund scandal.

Tamura noted that as evidenced in a criminal case against a former treasurer of the LDP Abe faction, the creation of slush funds in LDP factions continued under instructions from faction executives. She said, “All LDP factions did not properly register revenues from fundraiser ticket sales in their political fund reports and kept such unreported profits as slush funds. The creation of off-the-book funds was an organized criminal act endorsed by the LDP. Nevertheless, Ishiba, as the LDP president, fails to understand this, which is serious.”

Ishiba, refuting Tamura’s claim, said, “Don’t call the scandal an organized crime.”

In the NHK’s “Sunday Debate” program, what role Japan should play following the awarding of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Survivors Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) came up for discussion.

Tamura pointed out that as the only A-bombed nation in the world, Japan should participate in the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which rules that nuclear weapons are illegal.

Ishiba argued, “Japan is surrounded by countries possessing nuclear capabilities. Under this circumstance, the U.S. nuclear deterrent is effective.” He did not respond to Tamura’s call for Japan’s ratification of the TPNW and showed no clear stance toward Japan’s participation in a meeting of parties to the treaty as an observer.

Leaders of the “Nihon Ishin no Kai” party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan respectively indicated a stance that the abolition of nuclear weapons is just a lofty ideal.