Japan Press Weekly

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2008 December 10 - 16 [POLITICS]

Shii criticizes abuse of Lower House majority to override Upper House rejections

Following the forcible enactment of two controversial bills – an antiterrorism special measures law and a bank recapitalization bill - on December 12, Japanese Communist Party Shii Kazuo criticized the ruling parties for abusing their two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives to override rejections by the House of Councilors to enact them. “This will leave a stain on the history of the National Diet,” he said.

On the “antiterrorism special measures” bill to extend the deployment of Maritime Self-Defense Force units to the Indian Ocean to assist in the anti-terrorism effort, Shii said, “They (the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties) have twice used their force of majority to trample on the Constitution in the past year in order to get the bill to send the Maritime Self-Defense Force enacted.”

He pointed out that two successive cabinets – one led by Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo and the other by Prime Minister Aso Taro – should not have been qualified to submit bills in the Diet since they came into being without electoral support.

Shii said that Diet discussions have revealed that the overseas deployment of SDF units has been obstructing the real efforts to eradicate terrorism instead of contributing to it.

Referring to the issue of a former Air Self-Defense Force chief of staff general who published an essay that praises Japan’s past war of aggression in conflict with the government position, Shii said, “This reveals that within the SDF there is a dangerous current that overtly glorifies the past Japanese war of aggression in order to justify the expansion of Japan’s dispatches of troops abroad.”

On the bank recapitalization bill to help strengthen banks’ financial positions, Shii said, “The measure is aimed at helping major banks and other financial institutions make up for losses they suffered from unsound financial speculation. It does nothing to end banks’ reluctance to lend money to small- and medium-sized enterprises.”

“The pressing task of the Diet is to address the profound crisis facing small- and medium-sized businesses as well as the labor market in general. We continue to demand that the Diet launch measures to solve these problems as promptly as possible,” Shii said.