Japan Press Weekly

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2012 November 28 - December 4 [POLITICS]

Political party should show vision of Japan’s future: Shii

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said on November 28 that a responsible political party should show its vision of Japan’s future course in its election platform, including its stance in regard to the economy and diplomacy, commenting on a new party calling for “departure from nuclear power”.

He was referring to Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party), whose establishment was announced by Shiga Governor Kada Yukiko on November 27.

“The nuclear energy issue is very important, but I don’t think it is an appropriate manner of political parties to dissolve or create themselves based only on a single issue,” said Shii.

He pointed out that the new party does not present its stance on any of the key issues outside of nuclear power generation, stressing that in that way it is asking voters to give it a blank check on other issues.

Referring to the 2005 general election in which then Prime Minister Koizumi Jun’ichiro presented the privatization of postal services as the only election issue, the JCP chair said, “Although the Liberal Democratic Party won a substantial victory in that election, what it did after the election was to promote and implement policies that led to an increase in poverty and social disparity by promoting ‘structural reform’ policies. It is undemocratic to ask voters to give a blank check with a single-issue focus.”