Japan Press Weekly

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2014 October 15 - 21 [POLITICS]

JCP Shiokawa criticizes bill to ‘revitalize’ local economies

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Shiokawa Tetsuya on October 14 at a Diet plenary session pointed out that many local difficulties are being caused by the policies of successive governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Shiokawa said this in the deliberation on a bill to “revitalize” local economies which the Abe government submitted to the current session of the Diet as a key to its policies.

The bill points out two main problems shared among local cities and towns: population decline in many localities and overpopulation in Tokyo. Shiokawa stressed that these problems are outcomes of the government’s policies ignoring the need for balanced development across the nation.

Regarding the decreasing population, Shiokawa said that young workers find it more difficult to get married and raise children because they are forced to accept low-paid, unstable jobs and long working hours as a result of the relaxation of labor regulations by the government led by the LDP and Komei Party.

The JCP lawmaker criticized a government-proposed bill to revise the Worker Dispatch Law to enable employers to replace their regular workers with agency dispatched workers and, consequently, leading to a further decrease in the nation’s birthrate.

Shiokawa argued that the overconcentration of economic activities in Tokyo resulted from government policies which have ruined local businesses and employment by liberalizing agricultural imports which weakened farmers, easing restrictions on large retail stores which led to a decline in local small shops, and promoting mergers of municipalities.

Shiokawa criticized the Abe government for ignoring to face up to its past maladministration and for seeking to push forward with negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact and the construction of a maglev railway, which will both increase the economic centralization of Tokyo.

In order to solve some of the problems caused by the overheated Tokyo centralization, Shiokawa said, the government should create local jobs by promoting agriculture and the use of renewable energy sources, and ensure access to medical and nursing care services for people across the nation so that they can live without anxiety.