Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2012 September 5 - 11 [POLITICS]

No candidate for DPJ head reflects on breach of promises

The Democratic Party of Japan on September 10 officially announced its presidential election slated for September 21, and its current leader Noda Yoshihiko (prime minister), Akamatsu Hirotaka (ex-agriculture minister), Haraguchi Kazuhiro (ex-home affair minister), and Kano Michihiko (ex-agriculture minister) filed their candidacies.

At a joint press conference on the same day, all the four candidates supported the DPJ policy to increase the consumption tax rate, showing no sincere remorse for repeated breaches of public promises the party made during the 2009 general election.

Their argument focused mainly on inner-party issues, such as the event in which 71 DPJ lawmakers left the party after opposing a consumption tax hike, discontent about the present handling of the government, and a sense of crisis over a possible party split.

Regarding DPJ-LDP-Komei talks behind closed doors towards raising the consumption tax and cutting back on social welfare programs, Noda and Kano stated the need to comply with the three-party agreement.

Haraguchi said that the basis of this agreement has collapsed because of a censure motion against the prime minister adopted at the Upper House, but did not mention if he would discard the three-party plan on a consumption tax increase.

Noda again expressed his intension to promote Japan’s participation in TPP negotiations, and stated that he will complete his work on administrative reforms as well as political reforms, including cuts in the number of Diet seats.

All four candidates said nothing in regard to the U.S. military base issue or the huge rally held the previous day in Okinawa with an estimated 100,000 people turning out in opposition to the plan to deploy U.S. Osprey aircraft to Okinawa.