Japan Press Weekly

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2011 December 7 - 13 [POLITICS]

Shii sums up extraordinary Diet session

The Japanese Communist Party held an assembly meeting of all JCP Dietmembers after the 179th extraordinary Diet session closed on December 9. JCP Chair Shii Kazuo stated that the latest session dealt with recovery from the 3.11 disaster and the ongoing nuclear crisis as major challenges.

Shii dubbed the Noda Cabinet as an errand boy for the Unites States and financial circles, saying that it decided to enter into multinational free-trade talks, started a procedure to transfer the U.S. Futenma base in Okinawa to another location in Okinawa, and schemed to adversely revise the taxation and social welfare services as one package.

Shii said that the JCP, based on its founding spirit to reduce people’s hardships, actively proposed concrete recovery measures such as to solve the “double loan” problem, decontaminate radiation, and provide compensation for damages. He stated that the party stood firm against all policies running counter to the recovery effort.

Shii evaluated that a concerted struggle of workers helped hamper the Worker Dispatch Law from being adversely revised and the wages of national government employees from being cut.

At the very end of the session, the JCP played a part in adopting a censure motion in the Upper House against Defense Minister Ichikawa Yasuo based on the JCP’s position against a new military base in Okinawa, Shii explained.

He stated that the world economy is taking on the aspect of an overproduction crisis and emphasized the need to boost domestic demand in order to restore the country’s economy. From this viewpoint, the JCP is urging the government to improve the income and household economy, he stated. Shii called on JCP Dietmembers to explore and develop various approaches to achieve this.

He also encouraged them to work harder to have an emergency plan implemented for evacuees in northeast Japan to be able to survive the harsh winter.