Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2011 January 26 - February 1 [POLITICS]

Your Party calls for TPP entry and cuts in numbers of local assemblymen

The Your Party, inaugurated in August 2009, held its first convention on January 29 at a Tokyo hotel, and called for Japan’s entry into the free-trade TPP pact and for cuts in the number of local government employees and local assemblymen.

The Your Party’s “agenda in agriculture” promotes Japan’s participation in the TPP as a “golden opportunity” and aims to adopt a large-scale farming system and to facilitate business entries into the farming industry.

The party’s “agenda in local governments” advocates the introduction of a “doshu-sei” regional system to replace the current prefectural system. It also proposes cuts in the payroll of local government employees by 20% and a decrease in the number of local assemblypersons by 50%.

The same “agenda” suggests that national grants to local governments be abolished and that revenues from the consumption tax be used for local funding.

Your Party Leader Watanabe Yoshimi proclaimed that the party will seek to gain in absolute strength in order to change the power balance as an alternative to the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan.

He announced that the party will field more than 500 candidates for nationwide local elections to be held in April and more than 100 candidates for the next general election.