Japan Press Weekly

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2017 October 11 - 17 [POLITICS]

Rengo calls for end to Abe regime but supports ruling party candidate in Tokyo No.12 district

Rengo Tokyo, a local chapter of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), is supporting a ruling Komei Party candidate, while calling for an end to the Abe government, in the head-to-head race with a Japanese Communist Party candidate in a Tokyo constituency.

Rengo criticizes Prime Minister Abe for having dissolved the Lower House as an attempt to prolong the life of his regime. Rengo’s inconsistency raises the question if the union is actually helping to prolong the rule of the present government.

The electoral district in question is Tokyo’s No.12 constituency where a one-on-one battle is taking place between JCP Ikeuchi Saori and former head of the Komei Party Ota Akihiro.

Expressing its opposition to the government policy of introducing a “zero-overtime-payment” system, Rengo Tokyo is calling on its union workers to make efforts during the election campaign to send representatives of workers to the Diet. In this context, it is obviously contradictory for Rengo to give its support to a candidate of the LDP coalition partner Komei Party.