Japan Press Weekly

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2013 May 22 - 28 [POLITICS]

JCP won’t form electoral alliance with either party: Kasai

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira on May 27 said at a gathering held inside the Dietmembers’ Office Building with the attendance of legislators from each opposition party, “The conditions do not exist for the JCP to cooperate with any political party in the Upper House election this coming summer.”

Pointing to recent united efforts in opposition to nuclear power generation, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade pact, revision of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, the planned increase in the consumption tax rate, and the U.S. military presence in Japan, Kasai said that the JCP is willing to cooperate with other parties in the Diet if they can agree on a single issue and that the same applies to joint actions with citizens.

“However,” Kasai added, “When it comes to national elections, it is essential to reach an agreement on the broad area of key policies before forging an electoral alliance between a party and a party.”

His statement is summarized here:

In proportional representation constituencies, voters choose a political party. If an elected person leaves the party afterwards, his/her political affiliation will be different from what the voters chose in the election. This will greatly matter in regards to the way a political party should represent itself.

In small-district constituencies, to put up a joint candidate who does not belong to a party means that this party will have to entrust the whole of its authority representing the party and representing the voice of the supporters to this person during his/her 6-year-tenure in the Upper House.

The only option for a political party to be able to endorse a joint candidate with other parties is to reach a consensus on key national policies with the candidate and have common aims in mind. If not, it means that the party will abandon its responsibility to voters.

For example, in the issue of the TPP, Prime Minister Abe is trying to do what the United States wants Japan to do because of the importance attached to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. Under this circumstance, more people are now calling the Japan-U.S. alliance into question. The JCP needs a consensus on key national issues, especially in efforts to seek an alliance-free, truly-independent, and peaceful Japan, because many problems often originate with the existence of the bilateral alliance. Without this consensus, the JCP cannot fulfill its duty to voters in dealing with various national issues for the next six years. From this point of view, the JCP continues to demonstrate its independent role in national politics.