Japan Press Weekly

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2023 July 26 - August 1 [POLITICS]

Koike protests ‘Ishin’ head’s unjust attack on JCP

The rightist “Nippon Ishin no Kai” head Baba Nobuyuki on July 26 made yet another unjust attack on the Japanese Communist Party by saying that the JCP is a “dangerous party” as it is subject to close observation under the Subversive Activities Prevention Act.

In reaction, JCP Secretariat Head Koike Akira at a press conference on the day argued hard against Baba’s remark.

Koike pointed out that in the February 1989 House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, grilled by the then JCP Vice Chairperson, Fuwa Tetsuzo, the then Public Security Intelligence Agency director admitted that the agency had investigated the JCP for 36 years, but found no evidence of JCP subversive activities or of an alleged “violent revolution” policy. Koike said that it is unjust for the PSIA to use large amounts of tax money to investigate the JCP. He went on to say that the JCP has never had an official policy of calling for violent revolution, adding, “This can be also found in the just-published party history ‘Hundred Years of the JCP’.”

Koike said that the Ishin party should stop its unjust attacks on the JCP with the use of groundless anti-communist propaganda such as the fraudulent claim that the JCP still maintains a violent revolution policy.

Furthermore, Koike noted that in response to the JCP’s written request demanding the retraction of Baba’s “JCP should not exist in Japan” remark which the JCP submitted to the Ishin party earlier on the day, the Ishin party refused to accept the JCP demand on the grounds that the JCP in public fiercely criticized the Ishin party. He said, “For political parties, the act of denying the existence of a particular party by saying that it should disappear from Japan is fundamentally different from criticizing each other.” He again demanded the retraction of the Ishin head’s remark.

Koike said, “In the prewar period, the JCP was outlawed under the Public Order Maintenance Law and Japan went headlong into the war of aggression. This shows what may happen if the JCP does not exist in Japan as the Ishin head demands.”

Past related article:
> Koike protests remark by ‘Ishin’ party head ‘JCP should not exist in Japan’ [July 25, 2023]