Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 25 - May 8 [LABOR]

21,000 workers hold May Day rally in Tokyo

The 83rd Central May Day rally took place in Tokyo with 21,000 workers participating.

Participants marched through the downtown area carrying flags and placards: “Oppose a consumption tax hike and participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade pact!”, “Achieve early reconstruction from the 3.11 disaster, denuclearization, wages increase, and stable employment!”

National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) President Daikoku Sakuji called for breaking the prolonged consumer recession by stabilizing employment and improving social security programs. He said, “It is time for the labor movement to demand a greater role in society.”

Matsuzaki Junko, a nurse at the Futaba Town Welfare Hospital in Fukushima Prefecture also gave a speech. On March 12 last year, when she was evacuating inpatients from the hospital, an explosion took place at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Her colleagues and their families became separated because of the accident. “What we lost is incalculable. We have to work to prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again,” she said.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo emphasized that the strength of popular movements drove the government to stop the operations of all nuclear facilities in Japan. He called on participants to demand that the government give up resuming the operations of idled nuclear reactors and break away entirely from nuclear power generation. He also criticized the Noda Cabinet for moving to implement a consumption tax hike, join the TPP agreement, and construct a new U.S. base in Okinawa. “It should be obvious that the current government is no longer qualified to run the country,” he added.

Central Union of Japan Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu), objecting to Japan’s participation in the TPP pact, sent its president’s message of solidarity to the rally.