Japan Press Weekly

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2007 September 12 - 18 TOP3 [POLITICS]

JCP Ichida criticizes two LDP presidential candidates

On an NHK debate program aired on September 16, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi criticized the two candidates in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election for promising that they will continue the “structural reform” policy that is increasing poverty and social disparities.

Ichida pointed out that the basic policies by the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei Parties were rejected in the House of Councillors election in July, and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was forced to step down because LDP-Komei government parties reached an impasse.

The two LDP presidential candidates, Fukuda Yasuo, former chief cabinet secretary, and Aso Taro, LDP secretary general, say that “reforms have both a bright side and a dark side.”

Ichida said, “The bright side is only for a handful of big corporations and billionaires. The dark side of the “reform” policy has always been imposed on ordinary people.” He denounced the “structural reform” policy allowing big corporations to obtain record profits and tax cuts while imposing on ordinary people tax increases, cutbacks in social welfare services, and deterioration of working conditions. A policy of boosting people’s living standards and not giving priority to the interest of big business is necessary, Ichida emphasized.

The JCP secretariat head also pointed out that the military budgets, including the considerate budget for the stationing of U.S. forces in Japan and the planned expenditure of 3 trillion yen on their reorganization, should be cut.

He expressed the JCP’s opposition to the extension of Maritime Self-Defense Force’s activities to support the U.S. forces in the Indian Ocean, saying that the U.S.-led six-year anti-terrorism war of retaliation has led to terrorists taking root in larger regions and worsened the cycle of terrorism and retaliation. Ichida stressed that “in order to eliminate terrorism, efforts to overcome poverty such as aid for education and other non-military efforts centering on the United Nations are needed to create a climate making it difficult for terrorists to operate.”