Japan Press Weekly

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2007 December 12 - 18 [POLITICS]

1,600 in rally say ‘No!’ to resumption of MSDF refueling mission

In opposition to the government attempt to resume the Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, about 1,600 people on December 12 took part in a rally at the Hibiya Amphitheatre in Tokyo.

On behalf of the rally organizer, National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) President Ban’nai Mitsuo called on the participants to block the government’s and ruling parties’ attempt to again extend the current Diet session in order to enact a new anti-terrorism special measures bill to allow the resumption of the MSDF refueling operation.

“The money to support war should be used to protect the living conditions of the public,” Ban’nai said and demanded that the Diet fully uncover the facts about the defense scandal involving politicians, bureaucrats, and Japanese and U.S. arms industries.

As the government of a country that has the war-renouncing Constitution, the Fukuda government must make efforts to immediately stop the United States from waging war, said Ban’nai.

Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Inoue Satoshi in his speech pointed out that growing pubic opposition was driving the ruling parties into a corner. He called on the rally participants, “Let’s further increase public opposition in order to defeat the bill!”

Holding a placard reading, “‘No’ to anti-people politics!,” Miyashita Yukie, a 32-year-old woman who participated in the rally, expressed her anger, saying, “The ruling parties are insisting that they will enact the bill by approving it in the House of Representatives by a two-thirds majority. But their scheme squarely goes against the demands of the public.”