Japan Press Weekly

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2012 January 25 - 31 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Shii demands snap election to reflect public opinion

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on January 27 took the floor on behalf of the JCP at the Lower House plenary session and demanded a snap general election to reflect the opinion of voters.

Shii spoke on the controversial issues of a consumption tax increase, Japan’s participation in negotiations to enter into the multinational free trade pact, and the “relocation” of the U.S. Futenma base inside Okinawa, and stated that the government position on all these issues goes against public opinion.

What is needed is for the government to dissolve the House of Representatives and hold an election in order to determine popular judgment, Shii argued.

He also proposed a 3-step measure to improve social security programs and overcome the financial crisis.

First, he stated: the government should eliminate the wasteful budgetary expenditures for promoting unneeded large development projects and nuclear power generation, the so-called “sympathy” budget for the stationing of the U.S. forces in Japan, and governmental subsidies to political parties; and the government must revamp the highly regressive tax system that favors large corporations and the rich at the expense of the majority.

As the next step, Shii stated: the government must implement a drastic expansion of social security programs and secure financial resources through tax revisions based on the “principle of ability to pay” and “progressive taxation”.

Finally, Shii stated: rules and regulations should reflect the interests of the general public in which regular employment is taken for granted and the minimum wages increased; and the government pursues the sound economic growth led by domestic demand by legislating that a portion of the 260 trillion yen in internal reserves large corporations have hoarded be used to benefit society at large.