October 22, 2014

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki on October 21 held a press conference in the Diet building and released a policy proposal seeking to realize a gender equal society.

The proposal includes the following policies: create a society that meets the requirements for balancing career and family; reduce the number of women living in poverty; respect women’s human rights and delete all discriminatory provisions from laws; fulfill the country’s international responsibility to settle the so-called “comfort women” issue; and ensure women’s equal participation in decision-making bodies.

The Abe government claims that it will promote the enhancement of women’s workforce participation but has no concrete policy to end gender inequality and sexual discrimination.

Explaining that the JCP proposal lays out concrete steps needed to be taken based on the UN convention prohibiting all forms of discrimination against women, Yamashita said, “Our party will cooperate with various women’s organizations and individuals in order to work together to have the party’s proposal implemented.”

Along with legal reform, it is also important to have corporations bear their social responsibility so that both men and women can fully utilize their capabilities in workplaces, said Yamashita.

He also said that in doing so, people’s incomes will go up and stable economic growth will be possible, which will lead to reversing the declining birthrate.

The JCP representative went on to say, “I will call on other political parties to work together to have intensive Diet discussions on gender equality.”