Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2012 January 6 - 10 [JCP]

JCP kicks off 2012 political campaign

Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission Chair Koike Akira in a street speech in Tokyo on January 5 called for 2012 to be the year of a great advance toward a Japan without nuclear power plants.

In front of Shinjuku Station, Koike expressed his determination to do all he can to help reconstruct the areas affected by the 3.11 disaster.

He also criticized the Noda Cabinet for trying to force heavier burdens on citizens by further weakening the pension, medical, and nursing care services under the name of a “unified reform of social security programs and the taxation system.”

“We can obtain enough funds for a healthy social welfare system through other means,” said Koike, and urged the government to cut national subsidies for political parties and reduce military spending. He also proposed that major companies, which have amassed 260 trillion yen in internal reserves, pay their fair share in taxes.

Miyamoto Toru, a Lower House candidate in Tokyo, stressed the need to block the government’s attempt to cut the number of parliamentarians as a move to get voices opposing nuclear power generation and a consumption tax hike out of the Diet. He said to passers-by, “Please support the JCP, the only party that can change the rotten political framework.”