Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 6 - 12 [JCP]

JCP candidate comes first in by-election in Yamanashi

A Japanese Communist Party candidate came out on top on November 10 in the by-election of the Tsuru City Assembly in Yamanashi Prefecture.

JCP candidate Itakura Yasuaki, 62, garnered 4,295 votes (23.9% of total vote). This is the first time that the party won two seats in the city assembly along with its current seat, acquiring the right to introduce ordinance bills.

In the election campaign, the candidate called on voters to help the JCP have the initiative to submit bills in the assembly, saying, “By use of the discretionary financial adjustment fund of 2.3 billion yen, the city government can reduce the municipal health insurance tax as well as parents’ burden of compulsory education.”

Itakura had served as an elementary school teacher for 37 years in Tsuru City. Many of his former colleagues and students supported Itakura, saying, “He is a sincere person with strong convictions,” and “I would recommend him without hesitation because he is a candidate of the JCP.”

In Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward Assembly election (40 seats in total) held on the same day, all the candidates of the JCP were elected and the party succeeded in keeping its five pre-election seats.

The Democratic Party of Japan lost half of the six seats it had before the election. The JCP passed the DPJ in strength, becoming the third largest party in the assembly.

During the campaign, a municipal project to spend 40 billion yen in taxpayer money in relocating and rebuilding the ward office emerged as a major issue. The JCP contenders pointed to the fact that the office building had already gone through seismic retrofitting, arguing that the money should be used instead for setting up more authorized childcare centers as well as homes for elderly people requiring special care.