Japan Press Weekly

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2018 October 10 - 16 TOP3 [JCP]

JCP in 5th CC Plenum reaffirms need for electoral cooperation

The Japanese Communist Party on October 13 and 14 held its Fifth Central Committee Plenum at its head office in Tokyo. After two-day inner party discussions related to achieving victories in the House of Councilors election and nationwide local elections next year, JCP Chair Shii Kazuo delivered the concluding address, and the plenum unanimously adopted the JCP Executive Committee report and Shii's concluding remarks. Fifty-six party members took the floor and nearly 20,000 members throughout Japan watched the event via intra-communications or the Internet.

The party in its 5th CC Plenum reaffirmed that responsible negotiations with other opposition parties in addition to cooperation with concerned citizens are vital to make it possible to field a united opposition candidate in every single-seat constituency in the Upper House election.

Since the House of Representatives election in October last year, remarkable progress has been made on joint efforts between concerned citizens and opposition parties and also on parliamentary cooperation among five opposition parties and one political group. The victory of the anti-base opposition candidate, Tamaki Denny, in the Okinawa gubernatorial election was the most recent result of this unity.

The JCP will strive to realize mutual endorsements and support in all the 32 single-seat constituencies in the Upper House election slated for next summer. As for proportional representation blocs and multi-seat electoral districts in the election, the JCP will prepare to compete with other opposition parties in order to defeat the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komei coalition and its supplementary force. Success in putting up a united opposition candidate in every single-seat constituency will certainly bring about a positive effect in other constituencies, dealing a crushing blow to the Abe government.

The opposition parties have already confirmed the need to choose one person as their united candidate in the 32 single-seat constituencies in the Upper House election.

However, the JCP desperately needs close cooperative ties with the Civil Alliance to not stay simply within the realm of a "harmonized candidacy" with other opposition parties but to build "true collaboration" on specific policies among them.

The JCP understands that each party has different viewpoints on supporting "united opposition candidates" or on supporting "joint opposition efforts", but the JCP hopes that serious and candid interparty negotiations, including candid exchanges of different opinions, will start immediately.