Japan Press Weekly

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2007 October 31 - November 6 [POLITICS]

JCP Shii criticizes talks between prime minister and DPJ head

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at a press conference on November 1 criticized Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo and Democratic Party President Ozawa Ichiro for planning to have another round of talks on the next day.

Shii stressed that such an inter-party consultation will undermine parliamentary democracy because it breaches two basic rules.

One is that inter-party consultations must not come before parliamentary discussions open to the public.

“Every party should give top priority to dealing with problems before the public eye through open discussions in the Diet,” Shii said.

The other is that all parties should take part in inter-party consultations. At least in the past 10 years, there has been no talks of party heads in which only the prime minister and one opposition party head took part to the exclusion of other parties, Shii said.

Former prime ministers Koizumi Jun’ichiro and Abe Shinzo held talks with all opposition party heads in round table style or in one-on-one talks.

The JCP chair said, “An inter-party consultation without abiding by these two rules cannot avoid the charge of collusion behind closed doors. The contents of such talks are not fully disclosed. This inevitably gives rise to speculations and may lead to an opaque political situation dominated by speculation.”