2016 September 21 - 27 TOP3 [
JCP]
Shii calls for head-on confrontation with Abe gov’t in convened Diet session
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The 192nd extraordinary session of the Diet convened on September 26. At a general meeting of the Japanese Communist Party lawmakers held in the Diet building, JCP Chair Shii Kazuo called on them to confront the Abe government’s runaway policies.
Shii noted that the Abe administration’s anti-people policies have come to a deadlock in every field, referring to the issues of the unconstitutional national security legislation (the war legislation), the large corporations-oriented economic package called “Abenomics”, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact, restart of suspended nuclear power plants, the construction of U.S. military facilities in Okinawa, and constitutional revision.
Shii went on to emphasize that the JCP has presented its counterproposals concerning all these issues based on people’s interests. He said, “Let’s face up to the Abe government’s runaway policies and fight together with other opposition parties and the general public to have them changed.”
Touching on some focal points in this Diet session, the JCP leader stressed that it is possible for opposition forces to work together in opposing hasty discussions on TPP-related bills and deliberations about constitutional amendments in line with the Liberal Democratic Party’s draft constitution.
Shii called on the JCP parliamentarians to do their best to further increase cooperation with concerned citizens and other opposition parties, and develop that into collaboration in the next general election.
The extraordinary Diet session will last until November 30.
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On the same day, the All-Out Action Committee, which is comprised of a wide range of civic groups and trade unions, staged an action outside the Diet building with about 800 people taking part.
Demonstrators called out in chorus, “Repeal the war legislation immediately!” “Don’t send SDF troops to South Sudan!”
Past related article:
> Abe Cabinet ministers break election promises to oppose TPP [September 18, 2016]