Japan Press Weekly

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2022 June 22 - 28 [POLITICS]

Shii in kick-off speech calls for JCP advance in Upper House election to protect peace and people’s livelihoods

The 17-day campaign period for the House of Councilors election officially commenced on June 22. Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo delivered kick-off speeches in Tokyo and Osaka, appealing to voters for the need for a JCP victory in order to protect people’s livelihoods, especially during the current price surge and help to realize true peace.

Among the crowd who joined in the JCP’s kick-off rally near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, there was a 44-year-old mother of a child with an incurable disease, Ofuji Tomoko. She said that despite receiving medical expense subsidies, her burden for medical payments has become heavier. She said, “I used to pay 2,500 yen a month as the out-of-pocket medical cost. Now, I pay 20,000 yen every month. I want the government to spend taxpayers’ money on social welfare services and not on another military buildup.”

A 29-year-old man, Isshiki Sho, who happened to hear Shii’s speech, said, “I think if military expenditure is increased as promoted by the Liberal Democratic Party, it will lead to a further cutback in the welfare budget.” He also said, “I oppose any move to turn Japan into a society similar to what existed in wartime Japan which deprived the people of their liberty.”

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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, the LDP leader, delivered his first campaign speech in Fukushima Prefecture. While expressing his intent to revise the government’s security strategy, Kishida said nothing about the LDP’s demand that Japan’s military budget be raised to 2% of GDP. Furthermore, regarding a major factor for skyrocketing prices, he insisted that the global inflation wave due to the ongoing war in Ukraine is affecting the economy in Japan, refusing to admit to the Abenomics-induced extremely weak yen as a causal factor.

Past related article:
> Taking advantage of Ukraine crisis, LDP seeks to double military spending to more than 2% of GDP [May 2, 2022]