Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 25 - July 1 [PEACE]

Japan Peace Committee holds its National Congress and calls for fight against U.S. aircraft carrier’s homeporting in Yokosuka

The Japan Peace Committee held its 58th National Congress on June 28 and 29 in Chichibu City in Saitama Prefecture.

About 240 delegates from around the country discussed ways to increase grassroots movements to defend the Constitution and stop the government’s attempt to turn Japan into a war-fighting nation.

The action policy, adopted unanimously, pointed out that “opposition to constitutional revision” has become the majority sentiment in recent opinion surveys and that the Nagoya High Court in an historic ruling judged that the government dispatch of Self-Defense Forces to Iraq is unconstitutional. It said that the peace movement during the past year has contributed to a dramatic change in public opinion and has served as a foundation for further increasing the movement calling for the defense of the war-renouncing Article 9.

According to the JPC, 160 meetings have been held throughout the country to discuss the Nagoya High Court ruling.

The action policy called for opposition to legislation that will allow overseas deployment of the SDF to be increased and for more joint actions to be taken with local governments and residents hosting U.S. bases so that the U.S. plan to realign their forces in Japan will be foiled.

A representative from Nago in Okinawa spoke about the citizens’ struggle that has blocked the U.S. plan to construct a new state-of-the-art U.S. Marine Corps air base in Nago City for more than ten years.

JPC Secretary General Chisaka Jun proposed to make a success of the July 13 national rally in Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture against the planned deployment of the U.S. nuclear powered aircraft carrier George Washington.

Chisaka also reported that the JPC National Congress was held with a larger JPC membership and that the JPC biweekly Heiwa Shimbun readership increased for the first time in 10 years.

The JPC National Congress received a message of support from the Japanese Communist Party Central Committee.