Japan Press Weekly

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2015 September 9 - 15 [JCP]

All 7 JCP candidates win in Nagano City Assembly election

Promising to protest against the war bills, all seven candidates of the Japanese Communist Party won in the Nagano City Assembly election on September 13 as public opposition to the government-sponsored war bills is growing. The party increased its strength in the assembly from five seats to an all-time high of seven.

The JCP obtained 21,661 votes (17% of the total vote), up by 3,760 votes from the previous election four years ago while the voter turnout rate declined to 43%. On the other hand, candidates of the governing Liberal Democratic and Komei parties suffered setbacks. At the election where 41 candidates contested for 39 seats, an incumbent Liberal Democratic Party-affiliated candidate, who is a member of the rightist organization Japan Conference, failed to retain his seat. Komei Party candidates received fewer votes than in the previous election.

The Nagano City Assembly is one of the rare local assemblies which approved written opinions seeking to enact the war bills. The JCP and its supporters’ groups in the election campaign called on the voters to express a strong “No” to the war bills with their votes for the JCP.

The JCP call attracted support from a wide range of the general public, including young people and even conservatives. The party’s street speech sessions were joined by various guest speakers, such as a former president of a major regional bank in Nagano and a former conservative member of the prefectural assembly.

Anti-nuke activist Tazawa Yoko, who worked for the JCP in the election campaign for the first time, commenting on the election result said, “This will be a heavy blow to the Abe government. I am happy about that.”