April 21 & 24, 2010

The Japanese Communist Party and about 130 people of faith on April 23 met in Fukuoka City in Fukuoka Prefecture to discuss the importance of dialogue between the JCP and various religions.

JCP Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo stated that he had grown up in a religious family, and two Christian ministers and a Buddhist monk spoke on the need to promote dialogue with the JCP expressing their religious viewpoints.

JCP religious affairs commission chief officer Taira Shizumaru reported that the JCP has developed a joint effort with religious workers to address common issues in Japan, irrespective of differences in religious beliefs, and that the party will continue holding discussions with many other religious people in different cultures.

On April 20, when the JCP Fukuoka Prefectural Committee held a JCP speech assembly, Reverend Kimura Koichi of the Japan Baptist Convention Fukuoka International Church took the rostrum. He said that the JCP is a party in pursuit of peaceful political solutions to all disputes and is a party putting priority on people’s social welfare as the greatest political value. In this assembly, not only JCP members but also politically conservative people participated.
- Akahata, April 21 & 24, 2010