Japan Press Weekly

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2007 September 26 - October 2 [WELFARE]

JCP Koike demands cancellation of implementation of unfair system for elderly health care

On TV discussion programs aired on September 30, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission Chair Koike Akira put forward the JCP views on the Fukuda Cabinet, elderly health care, and the consumption tax system.

Koike pointed out that the recent Upper House election result shows that the majority of the public is seeking a policy framework different from that of the Koizumi and Abe governments.

Amid strong public criticism, Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo has hinted that the government might bring in a freeze on the implementation next April of the medical-care system for the elderly aged 75 or older that will impose heavier burdens onto the elderly.

In the discussion, Liberal Democratic Party Policy Research Council Chair Tanigaki Sadakazu also said, “Perhaps we should consider a freeze on it.”

Koike criticized the elderly medical care system for targeting the stratum of people that are prone to illness and the mostly low-income people, thus imposing intolerable burdens on them.

Koike demanded that the government give up the implementation of the system.

“The fact that the government has admitted the need for a freeze on the implementation indicates that this government policy has collapsed. Thus the policy must be drastically reviewed,” Koike said, adding that the JCP will make efforts to change the government’s “structural reform” policy line.

Concerning historical issues, Prime Minister Fukuda has suggested that he will refrain from visiting Yasukuni Shrine and give importance to relationships with other Asian nations.

Koike said, “If the prime minister really adopts such a stance, he must settle the historical issues.” Koike demanded that the government seriously respond to the Okinawans’ call for retracting the textbook screening policy of denying the Japanese Imperial Army’s involvement in Okinawans’ “mass suicides” during WWII.

In responding to a question about the financial resources of social welfare services, Tanigaki took up to the issue of a consumption tax hike.

Koike criticized Tanigaki by saying, “When it comes to taxation, why do you automatically talk about consumption tax hikes?” Koike stressed that the government must consider imposing fair burdens on large corporations that are making unprecedented high rates of profit.