Japan Press Weekly

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2011 August 31 - September 6 [POLITICS]

Grand coalition will conflict with people’s demands: Shii

On August 31, the final day of the ordinary Diet session convened on January 24, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo spoke at the meeting of its Dietmembers.

Shii said that since the 3. 11 disaster and the following Fukushima nuclear accidents, the JCP has played an active role in realizing disaster victims’ demands through Diet deliberations.

Shii reported that the JCP’s concrete proposals led other political parties to establish a scheme to deal with disaster victims’ “double-loan problems”, and that as the JCP revealed electric companies’ manipulation of public opinion, they could not restart nuclear power plants which are suspended for regular inspection.

Regarding Noda Yoshihiko, new prime minister and new Democratic Party of Japan President, Shii said that he intends to form a grand coalition with the Liberal Democratic and the Komei parties, and thereby the government will likely accelerate a move to fulfill the demands of the United States and the business circle, including a consumption tax increase, expediting bringing of off-line nuclear reactors back online and maintaining nuclear power generation, and the relocation of the U.S. Futenma base to Okinawa’s Henoko.

Criticizing Noda’s move, Shii said that if the grand coalition is established, it will further conflict with people’s demands.

Shii also said, “The political fault line in Japan lies between the DPJ, the LDP and the Komei Party on the one hand, that pursue old-style politics, loyal to the United States and big businesses, and the JCP working hard to create a people-first new Japan by making a drastic change, on the other hand.”

Shii called on its Dietmembers to make efforts to build a stronger party organization by telling the public about the JCP’s role in the Diet.