Japan Press Weekly

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2011 October 26 - November 1 [ECONOMY]

JCP holds nationwide action in concert with farmers’ anti-TPP rally

On October 26 at a rally held in Tokyo to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade pact, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo expressed his determination to work until the government gives up entering into the TPP negotiations.

Together with representatives of other political parties, JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi and a number of JCP Dietmembers also attended the rally.

Shii in his speech said that in support of the rally, JCP organizations throughout the country on the same day took to the streets to call for public support for the opposition to Japan’s entry into the TPP.

The rally had more than 3,000 participants from across Japan in attendance and was hosted by an organizing committee consisting of the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu), the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations (JF Zengyoren), the National Federation of Forest Owners’ Co-operative Association (Zenmoriren), the Japan Medical Association (JMA), and the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union (SCCU).

Criticizing the Noda Cabinet’s plan to announce Japan’s entry into negotiations on free trade at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference in November, JA-Zenchu President Banzai Akira on behalf of the organizing committee said, “The Cabinet ignores the people and takes a high-handed and slapdash approach. It is totally unacceptable.”

He also said, “The first priorities for the government are to recover from the 3.11 disaster and get the Fukushima crisis under control. To take part in the negotiations increases people’s anxiety about their future and is a slap in the face.”

JA-Zenchu collected 11.6 million signatures in the petition protest against the government’s plan to enter the TPP.

Representing the JMA, Vice President Nakagawa Toshio expressed his firm objection to Japan’s participation in the TPP. “Since 2001, the U.S. government has pushed the Japanese government to inject into the medical field the free market principle focusing on making profits. Japan’s entry into the TPP will eliminate almost all medical treatment covered by the public insurance program,” he added.

After the rally, participants marched in demonstration through Tokyo’s very famous shopping district in Ginza to voice their opposition to the TPP.