Japan Press Weekly

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2016 September 21 - 27 [JCP]

JCP 6th CC Plenum calls for increasing party strength

The Japanese Communist Party Central Committee held its 6th Plenum on September 20 and 21 at the JCP head office in Tokyo. JCP Chair Shii Kazuo gave a report on behalf of the Executive Committee, calling on all party members to work to build up the party strength in preparation for the 27th JCP Congress to be held in January 2017.

Shii referred to the results of the July Upper House election. He pointed out that the need for more party strength came to light although both the JCP and the opposition alliance produced significant achievements in the election. “In order to carry out the two tasks of a major advance of the JCP and development of the collaboration between citizens and opposition parties, it is vital to build a powerful JCP,” he stressed.

Shii proposed to further advance the joint struggle by the opposition parties and make extra efforts to obtain 8.5 million votes and 15% of the total vote in the proportional representation districts in the coming general election.

The JCP head condemned the Abe government for attempting to implement anti-people policies in various fields, about which PM Abe had kept silence during the election campaign. Shii went on to describe the JCP’s stance and ways of dealing with the present political issues; the unconstitutional security legislation (the war legislation), constitutional revision, economy and people’s lives, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact, restart of nuclear power plants, and the construction of U.S. military bases in Okinawa.

Shii suggested designating the four-month period until the end of next January as a campaign period to increase the strength of the JCP. He called for working to increase the JCP membership by 20,000 as well as the readership of the daily and Sunday Akahata by 20,000 and 105,000 respectively during the campaign.

The Executive Committee report was unanimously adopted. The 27th JCP Congress is scheduled to be held January 15-18 at the JCP Izu Study Hall in Atami City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

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JCP will initiate talks on collaboration among opposition parties in next general election

Shii in the Executive Committee report to the plenum said that based on lessons learned from the joint struggle of the opposition parties in the last election, the JCP seeks to further develop the opposition parties’ joint efforts in the next general election. To achieve this, the JCP will call on the Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the People’s Life Party to begin four-party talks on electoral cooperation, Shii added.

Shii noted that the four opposition party leaders agreed to pursue the following four goals in joint struggles against the Abe government: abolish the unconstitutional national security legislation and restore constitutionalism; prevent the “Abenomics” economic policy from further harming people’s livelihoods and widening social inequalities and poverty; put an end to the ironfisted Abe regime tactics ignoring people’s concerns over various issues such as the TPP and U.S. bases in Okinawa; block the Abe government’s move to revise the Japanese Constitution.

Shii stressed that considering joint candidates’ victories achieved in single-seat constituencies in the July Upper House election, no one can deny that the opposition parties’ joint efforts played a significant role. He cited the fact that the four opposition parties have repeatedly confirmed that they will cooperate “as much as possible” in future general elections.

Shii said that in order to achieve success in the opposition parties’ cooperation in the next general election, the need is to fully engage in mutual cooperation and support among the four parties. He also pointed out that it is necessary for the opposition forces to develop detailed and attractive policies in common and establish a forward-looking agreement regarding the forming of another government.

Shii expressed that the JCP will work together with civil activists to achieve this end.

Past related articles:
> JCP Secretariat Head Koike reminds DP of agreement made among 4 opposition parties [September 6, 2016]
> 4 parties and Civil Alliance confirm many policies in common in addition to scrapping war laws [June 8, 2016]
> Shii to DPJ-Ishin new party: let’s continue working together based on agreement among opposition party leaders [March 30, 2016]