Japan Press Weekly

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2012 February 1 - 7 [POLITICS]

Work together to block TPP: Shii at farmers meeting

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on January 31 called on all farmers to work together to prevent Japan from joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

Shii said this in a gathering held by the National Farmers Federation Agricultural Movement Organization to exchange information regarding the TPP from an oppositional standpoint.

As a political body of the Japan Agricultural Cooperative Group (JA), this organization has traditionally been a Liberal Democratic Party support base. It is the first time for a JCP chair to be invited to speak at a meeting hosted by this longstanding LDP support group.

Shii said that he had confronted Prime Minister Noda in a recent Diet interpellation by placing on the congressional record a New Zealand government document which states that all TPP negotiating documents will be kept “secret” for four years.

Shii said, “Japan should not participate in ‘secret talks’ leading to a TPP agreement,” and received a round of applause when he added, “The JCP is strongly urging the government to immediately withdraw its intent to take part in the TPP negotiations. Let us join forces until the government abandons this endeavor!”