Japan Press Weekly

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2012 December 5 - 11 [ELECTION]

Mayor of disaster-hit city supports JCP

“Various people have come to support the disaster-hit areas, but the Japanese Communist Party is the only political party which is working for reconstruction and relief in the areas,” said Rikuzen Takata City Mayor Toba Futoshi, Akahata reported on December 6.

Toba’s city in Iwate Prefecture was devastated by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

He said that since the start of the House of Representatives general election campaign on December 4, political parties or mass media have no longer talked about reconstruction of the disaster-stricken district.

He expressed his hope for the JCP to take the side of the weak as it has always done and reflect their voices in its election campaign.

In Fukushima City, a former town assembly member of the Liberal Democratic Party expressed his support for the JCP during the party’s street speech on December 4.

Matsumoto Yasuyuki, 80, worked as an LDP assembly member for five terms in Odaka Town (now merged into Minamisoma City). He said in support of JCP candidate Watanabe Chiiko, “I was trying to promote nuclear power generation and its coexistence with the town’s development before, but I was wrong.”

“What the JCP has called for since the construction of the Fukushima plant 40 years ago is right. I decided to support the JCP which is calling for the immediate closure of all nuclear power plants in Japan,” he said.