Japan Press Weekly

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2012 January 11 - 17 [LABOR]

Fulfilling workers’ demands through spring struggle helps change Japan for the better

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

This year’s spring labor offensive is about to begin amidst a mountain of problems such as struggling to recover from the 3.11 disaster and the nuclear accident, escalation of financial and economic crisis, corporations’ arbitrary dismissals of workers, and a “unified reform of social welfare and tax systems” and Japan’s participation in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement.

The Noda Yoshihiko administration completely ignores its task of protecting people’s lives and livelihoods and guaranteeing workers decent jobs. The prime minister shuffled his Cabinet in order to push ahead with a package of plans to cut social welfare services and increase the consumption tax and reducing the number of proportional representation seats in the House of Representatives. He is making a mad dash towards the quick implementation of policies imposing further hardships on the general public.

Under such circumstances, trade unions joining in the People’s Spring Struggle Joint Committee have become more important than ever to defend people’s lives.

The People’s Spring Struggle Joint Committee aims at achieving job security, wage increases, and better working conditions. The Joint Committee also plays a role in achieving success in fulfilling people’s demands such as improvement of social welfare services.

The Japanese business world and large corporations have supported the U.S. policy based on overconsumption. On the other hand, in Japan, they have destroyed jobs and wages and made massive profits at the expense of small businesses by stressing the need to strengthen their international competitiveness and cut costs as measures to counter global economic crisis and the excessive appreciation of the yen. This has led to cooling domestic demand, destruction of local economies, decrease in tax revenues, and financial deterioration.

Big businesses amassed 260 trillion yen in their internal reserve funds. The amount of their ready cash reserves reached 62 trillion yen.

Using just a part of corporate internal reserves would make it possible to create jobs and increase wages. Putting an end to the government’s pro-business economic policy would also make it possible to improve social welfare programs without raising the consumption tax.

Only by putting importance on the household economy and domestic demand will growth of the Japanese economy be enabled. Struggles waged by workers and the general public to realize their demands will put a new face of hope on Japanese society.