Japan Press Weekly

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2013 June 12 - 18 [ELECTION]

Campaign for Tokyo assembly election starts

On June 14, the day the campaigning for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election to take place on June 23 officially kicked off, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his street speeches stressed that the “all-are-ruling-parties” versus the JCP is basically the picture of the political situation in this election.

Shii called on the audience to vote for the JCP, saying, “With the JCP’s major advance in the election, let’s change the governor’s pro-large development policy to one focusing on people’s welfare and livelihoods.”

Under the “all-are-ruling-parties” assembly structure in which the LDP, Komei, the DPJ, and the Your voted in favor on 100% of 186 bills introduced by Governor Inose Naoki, the metropolitan government intends to spend two trillion yen for the construction of the “Tokyo Outer Ring Road” which will cost 10 million yen per meter, while 21,000 children and 43,000 elderly are put on waiting lists to enter care facilities.

The LDP and Komei had conducted pre-election campaigns emphasizing “Abenomics” economic policies helped to gain the current high approval rating of the Abe Cabinet. However, following a sharp drop in stock prices on the previous day, LDP President Abe Shinzo cancelled his plan to join LDP candidates in their kick-off speeches.

DPJ President Kaieda Banri in his speeches said that the party will put a brake on the governor’s maladministration. The DPJ, in fact, voted in favor of 99% of former Governor Ishihara’s bills and supported his plans to relocate the Tsukiji fish market and close three metropolitan children’s hospitals, though the party promised to oppose these plans in the previous election four years ago.

The JRP and the Your Party, which positioned themselves as the “third-pole” in the 2012 general election, had agreed on electoral cooperation in this assembly election but the agreement was cancelled after JRP co-leader Hashimoto Toru made highly controversial remarks in regard to the “comfort women” issue. JRP co-leader Ishihara Shintaro and Your party President Watanabe Yoshimi in their kick-off street speeches no longer referred to their parties as comprising the “third pole”.