Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 11 - 17 [ECONOMY]

JA-Zenchu president calls on PM to not take part in TPP

President of Central Union of Japan Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu) Banzai Akira visited the Prime Minister’s office on April 16 and demanded that Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko withdraw from any future participation in negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement at the Japan-U.S. summit meeting scheduled for early May.

Accepting the petition handed to him by Banzai, Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura Osamu replied that a detailed schedule of Noda’s visit has not yet been decided.

The petition states that it is treachery against people for the government to declare an intent to join the TPP negotiations without allowing a national debate and before reaching consensus on the matter.

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The Yamagata Prefectural Committee of the Japanese Communist Party on April 14 held a symposium in Yamagata City opposing Japan’s participation in the TPP negotiations with an attendance of 280 people. Representatives of an agricultural cooperative, a group of medical institutions, and a consumers’ cooperative in the prefecture were invited as guest speakers.

The Yamagata City mayor also attended. The governor of Yamagata and the president of the Central Union of Yamagata Agricultural Cooperatives sent messages expressing solidarity to the symposium.

JCP member of the House of Representatives Takahashi Chizuko related PM Noda’s answer to her questioning in the Diet. “When I asked him how many jobs are expected to be created by Japan’s participation in the TPP, he replied he has no analysis or trial calculation available on that. What they call ‘national interests’ is just the interests of big business and the U.S.,” she said.

On the same day, 1,000 people took part in a forum opposing participation in the TPP negotiations which was held by the Central Union of Tottori Agricultural Cooperatives, an agricultural mutual benefit association and a health insurance doctors’ association of the prefecture. 17 out of 19 municipalities within the prefecture supported the rally.