Japan Press Weekly

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2014 April 23 - May 6 [JCP]

Assembly with no JCP seat allows assemblypersons to go on travelling sprees

In the Kanagawa prefectural assembly where there is no Japanese Communist Party member present, assemblypersons can go on trips abroad in the name of overseas “study” tours even though they are non-essential and non-urgent.

When Governor Kuroiwa Yuji and the prefectural administration use tight fiscal conditions as an excuse to set back a series of measures relating to residents’ well-being and living conditions, questions are being raised about the appropriateness of prefectural representatives’ luxurious overseas trips funded by taxpayers’ money.

Seven assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party are going to Holland in May. In addition to school- and medical-related facilities, they will visit tourist spots, including the causeway dike of Lake Yssel and a national museum in Amsterdam. For their 8-day trip, the cost will be 886,590 yen per person.

In November last year, six prefectural lawmakers of the LDP spent 925,830 yen each on their 8-day visit to Singapore, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

Four members of the Your Party in late January went to Finland and Denmark, staying there for one week. Their trip cost 743,280 yen per person.

JCP Goto Masami who will run for a seat in the Kanagawa prefectural assembly in the next year’s nationwide local elections said, “If financial difficulties exist in budget allocations, they should immediately stop such overseas study tours.”