Japan Press Weekly

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2013 July 24 - 30 [POLITICS]

Hokkaido wants Japan to pull out of TPP talks

About 7,000 farmers, fishermen, forestry workers, small business owners, anti-TPP activists, municipal employees, and consumers on July 25 held a rally in Sapporo City in Hokkaido, demanding that the government immediately stop taking part in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement talks.

Tobita Toshiaki, chairman of a major agricultural cooperative in Hakkaido, protested Japan’s participation in the negotiations in defiance of Hokkaido farmers’ concerns. He said, “We should protect Hokkaido from the TPP.”

Dietmembers from political parties spoke to the audience on behalf of their parties. As Liberal Democratic Party and Komai Party lawmakers appeared on stage, the crowd greeted them with boos and jeers.

JCP Kami Tomoko, who just won her third term in the Upper House in the Sunday ballot, expressed her anger at the government having joined the TPP sessions without a national consensus. She said that the TPP would do nothing to protect what Japan needs to protect like rice, and that Japan should drop out of the TPP talks which clearly go against the national interest.

On the same day, the 18th round of TPP negotiations at Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia ended. It was the first negotiating session for Japan. Government officials, however, are keeping all the information from trade terms and conditions to what Japan actually argued for secret.

With everything in secrecy, no matter how strong the government insists it will protect the national interest, it is not a guarantee it will do so. The TPP threatens the economic sovereignty of the nation and has various negative impacts on people’s living conditions.