September 10, 2013

A Japanese Communist Party candidate on September 8 won a one-on-one battle with a rival backed by the Liberal Democratic Party in the by-election of the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. The JCP now holds two seats in the 65-member assembly.

JCP Suzuki Satoshi received 16,728 votes (52.7%) in the election that was held to fill the vacancy in the Chikusei City electoral district. The number of votes the JCP candidate obtained increased by 120% from the previous prefectural assembly race and by 470% from the July Upper House proportional representation election.

The Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly is, in effect, in the “all-are-ruling-party” setup giving large development projects priority over its people there. The standards of their welfare and living conditions are the lowest level in Japan.

During the election campaign, Suzuki promised to have a hospital constructed in the medically-deserted city of Chikusei in response to residents’ demand.

His opponent whipped up only an ideological confrontation with the JCP, but Suzuki’s commitment to defend the residents’ livelihoods garnered wide public support.

Chikusei is the second largest rice-cropping area in the prefecture. The majority of conventionally politically conservative, especially agriculture-related voters, in the election this time gave support to the candidate of the JCP who, with the party, stands firmly against the multilateral free-trade accord, the so-called TPP.

After the announcement of his victory, Suzuki expressed his determination to carry out his campaign promise to work to have a hospital built, “The emergency medical system in our city has been very poor. Lives that should be saved cannot be saved here. The construction of a hospital is the residents’ earnest demand and is my mission. I will take up this issue in the assembly and urge the prefectural government to fund the construction.”