Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 25 - July 1 [JCP]

JCP Shii and religious leaders hold meeting

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on June 25 had discussion with about 140 religious leaders representing Buddhism, Shintoism, and Christianity in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

They discussed their views of the world and capitalism’s contradictions.

The meeting was held at the call of former Church of Christ in Japan minister Minami Atsushi and United Church of Christ in Japan minister Okazakki Akira, Buddhist priest Marikawa Ryoshaku (Shinshu Otani sect), and Kajiyama Noboru of Tenrikyo.

In his speech entitled “Is capitalism at an impasse in the 21st century?” Shii said that the JCP and religious leaders have much in common regarding their world outlook.

As indications of recent changes taking place in Japan’s capitalism, Shii cited special articles published in the mass media focusing on contemporary capitalism from various angles and Kobayashi Takiji’s novel Kanikosen (The Factory Ship), which has caught the attention of many young people.

These phenomena arise from a variety of capitalism called “neo-liberalism” and “market fundamentalism,” and their contradictions became clearer, after the approach was brought to Japan from the United States.

The contradictions arising from the increasing poverty rate, a rampage of speculative money, and environmental destruction, are all what Marx and Engels warned of as manifestations of contradictions in capitalism, he added.

Shii continued: “The JCP believes that all these questions need solutions, first within the framework of capitalism. Only if utmost efforts are made to solve them within the capitalist system, can most people learn that their comprehensive solution is impossible within the capitalist framework, and that conditions are ripe for opening the doors to the next stage of social development.”

“We are prepared to openly argue from the perspective of a future society that will overcome capitalism, a society in which people will be the real key players of society enjoying real freedoms and equal human relations,” Shii stated.

On behalf of the religious people’s JCP supporters’ association, Buddhist priest Suzuki Tesshu (Shinshu Otani sect) reported that meetings have taken place between religious leaders and the JCP in various places, including in Kyushu and Shizuoka.

Recalling his visit to the Monument at Taxila in Pakistan, Shii stated, “Historical encounters between Eastern and Western civilizations resulted in the birth of statues in Taxila. I believe that efforts to promote further understandings between different cultures with various values and their peaceful co-existence will help create new types of culture across the world.”