Japan Press Weekly

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2015 October 7 - 13 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Yamashita: Abe should step down rather than just reshuffle his Cabinet

Commenting on the reshuffle of the Abe Cabinet, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki on October 7 said to the press that the prime minister should be forced to dissolve, not allowed to reshuffle, his cabinet, which had forcibly enacted the war legislation and trampled on constitutionalism and democracy.

Earlier on the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide announced the list of members of the reshuffled third Abe Cabinet. The new Cabinet is joined by nine ministers of the former Cabinet, including Suga, Defense Minister Nakatani Gen, and Foreign Minister Kishida Fumio, all of whom played active roles in railroading through the war legislation which will involve Japan in U.S. military activities around the world.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo appointed advocates of the war-glorifying Yasukuni Shrine to his Cabinet. The selected ministers are supporters of anti-people policies such as constitutional revisions the construction of a new U.S. base in Okinawa, adverse reforms in the labor legislation, and the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact. This shows PM Abe’s strong intent to keep on maintaining his outrageous position.

Yamashita pointed out that the JCP proposes establishing a “national coalition government to repeal the war legislation”. He stressed that the JCP will work hard to help increase the public movement against the Abe Cabinet and make a serious effort to achieve the proposed goal.