Japan Press Weekly

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2012 September 26 - October 2 [POLITICS]

‘Ishin-no-Kai’, old-fashioned dangerous political party

“Ishin-no-Kai” led by Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru has old style and dangerous policies and connections as if it were the third Liberal Democratic Party.

“Ishino-no-Kai” has embraced nine active Dietmembers from the LDP, Democratic Party of Japan, and the Your Party. All are hawks or neo-liberalists. Of them, six became lawmakers of the parties they belonged to in proportional representation elections in which voters chose a political party, not a candidate.

“Ishin-no-Kai” will take in Takenaka Heizo as a chief of its work group for selecting who to field in the forthcoming general election. He used to be the minister of internal affairs under Koizumi Jun’ichiro, taking the initiative in Koizumi’s “structural reform” policy.

Hashimoto praises this “structural reform” steamroller, saying, “I totally agree with his ideas. His values and philosophy are exactly the same as ours.” Hashimoto has aspirations to “further push ahead with the Koizumi/Takenaka line” although they favored only a handful of large corporations and promoted a disposal labor force, causing the creation of the so-called “working poor”.

Hashimoto puts his great hopes on former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo who recently made a comeback as LDP leader. Hashimoto also praises the ex-PM, saying, “Our points of view are fitting perfectly in the issue of educational reform, the Constitution, and civil-service reform.” The two heads are both seeking to retract the 1993 government’s official “Kono Statement” which admitted to the Japanese military’s involvement and coercion in the so-called “comfort women” issue. They will likely cooperate in distorting history and revising the present Constitution.

A man who was a longtime LDP secretariat chief will assume the position as head of the “Ishin-no-Kai” Tokyo office, and the former LDP politician who advocates the controversial history textbooks glorifying Japan’s past war of aggression will take up the position of “Ishin-no-Kai” policy advisor.

Hashimoto in an open debate held on September 23 insisted, “It should be obviously allowed” for Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense abroad. As to the Osprey deployment, he said, “I must ask Okinawa to accept it.” “I have no other choice in mind” than Henoko in Nago City as an alternative for the U.S. Futenma base in Ginowan City, he said.

Calling for industrial shakeouts and the strengthening of competitiveness, Hashimoto proclaims that he will abandon small- and midsized-family farmers, though they have long been the backbone of Japanese agriculture, to promote Japan’s entry into the TPP accord.

He also promises to lift all restrictions on the emerging mixed-medical services in order to expand medical care not covered by public insurance. He also seeks to exclude certain diseases from being covered by public insurance.

“Ishin-no-Kai” is planning to blatantly go ahead with old-fashioned policies centering on big business and the demands being made by the United States.