Japan Press Weekly

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2024 September 11 - 17 TOP3 [POLITICS]

JCP Koike criticizes CDPJ leader candidate’s remark regarding joint struggles with JCP

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on September 10 at a press conference in the Diet building referred to a remark by a candidate running for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader that as a result of promoting joint struggles with the JCP, “the CDPJ’s vision for a future society became blurred.” Criticizing this remark as being inappropriate, Koike pointed out, “When it comes to a joint struggle among opposition parties, it is each party’s responsibility to present its own future vision.”

Koike explained that the Sunday Akahata edition won this year’s grand prize of the Japan Congress of Journalists awards for its series of reports dealing with the Liberal Democratic Party factions’ involvement in the creation of slush funds through off-the-book revenues from fundraiser tickets. Koike said that Akahata’s investigative reports and JCP’s Diet efforts played a role in forcing Prime Minister Kishida to resign.

Stressing the importance of the JCP’s role as a political party squarely confronting the LDP, Koike appealed to the need to strengthen joint struggles of opposition parties including the JCP in order to achieve a change in government. He said that only by overcoming ideological differences and joining forces can opposition parties establish a new government that meets people’s demands.

Koike also took up the remark made by another CDPJ leader candidate that among opposition parties, the Democratic Party for the People is the closest to the CDPJ. Pointing out that the DPP policy position champions constitutional revision and reactivation of nuclear power plants, Koike said that it is hard to understand why such a comment came out of CDPJ leader candidate’s mouth.