Japan Press Weekly

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2009 January 21 - 27 [TOKYO]

JCP Tokyo calls for extra budget to promote Tokyo residents well-being, not Olympic Games

The Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Members’ Group on January 21 handed Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro a statement requesting extra measures to be included in the FY 2009 budget to protect livelihoods without wasting tax money for bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games.

The proposed budget plan includes funding to ensure that 500,000 people get jobs, but the JCP points out that the measure is far from being adequate.

In its request to the governor, the JCP called for further improvement in emergency measures, including one to make public housing available to unemployed people who are in a state of homelessness and to subsidize their rents.

The group also demanded that:
- Tokyo substantially increase subsidies to its local governments; strengthen the basis of quake-proof construction for urban facilities;
- Increase the number of nursing-care and other welfare services workers and improve their working conditions;
- Expand financial assistance to long-term care nursing homes;
- Help reduce the premiums of the new healthcare insurance system for people aged 75 and older and subsidize their medical expenses;
- Increase the number of medical doctors and nurses;
- Create a “doctors bank” system to help reinstate doctors who are not currently practicing their profession;
- Ease condition on loans using the public-lending system;
- Promote public works projects closely related to improvements in living
conditions; and
- Reduce the standard class size at public schools to a maximum of 30 and sharply increase the number of teachers.

Governor Ishihara promised to consider the JCP requests.

Political groups in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly have the right to request the metropolitan government to include extra measures that are not currently included in the budget plan. To secure the resources to implement these measures, they may ask that unnecessary measures be excluded from the proposed budget.