Japan Press Weekly

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2008 October 29 - November 4 [JCP]

Former JCP vice-chair Ueda Koichiro dies

Former Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Vice Chair Ueda Koichiro died of chronic respiratory failure on October 30 at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 81.

Ueda is former JCP Central Committee Chair Fuwa Tetsuzo’s elder brother.

His funeral was held with only relatives attending on October 31.

The JCP will hold a public gathering to bid farewell to the late former vice-chair at a later date.

Ueda was born in 1927. He joined the JCP in 1946 when he was a student of the First High School in Tokyo under the old education system.

He served as the JCP’s policy commission chair and director of the Akahata editorial office, and was elected executive committee vice chair in 1976.

At the JCP 12th Congress in 1973, he made a report on the "Proposal of the JCP Concerning the Program for a Democratic Coalition Government."

For 24 years after he was elected to the House of Councilors in 1974, Ueda led the JCP in parliamentary struggles on a wide-range of issues, including money-power politics that involved then Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei, the Lockheed payoff scandal, and issues relating to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and the Self-Defense Forces.

JCP Chair Shii Kazuo said, "Mr. Ueda was involved in various political issues ranging from people's living conditions to peace and security. He did a very good job in the Diet, and at House of Councilors Budget Committee meetings. As a university student, I aspired to his work."

Even after he retired as a Dietmember in 1998, Vice Chair Ueda continued his work as the head of the Party Headquarters Building Construction Commission. He contributed to developing the struggle against an adverse revision of the Constitution as a member of the party's task force on constitutional issues after he became an officer emeritus of the Central Committee at the JCP 24th Congress in 2006.

Recalling Ueda’s accomplishments, Shii said, "In the theoretical field, Mr. Ueda made great contribution to developing the party's policy line based on the JCP Program and the party’s sovereign independence. To the end he passionately devoted himself to the struggle to defend Article 9 of the Constitution."