Japan Press Weekly

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2009 August 15 - 25 [ELECTION]

Break away from big business control and act upon Article 9 ; Shii

Prime Minister Aso Taro (Liberal Democratic Party president) argued that the gross domestic product (GDP) has recently marked a 3.7 percent growth, trying to dispel the growing public criticism of his government for failing to take appropriate measures for economic recovery. He said, “Figures for small- and medium-sized enterprises and employment will improve sometime later.”

Shii said, “In reading the recent quarterly economic indicators, we should take into account that they only slightly improved from the previous quarter and that this improvement came after many quarters of negative growth. Look at the fact that workers’ compensation growth was minus 4.7 percent and that the number of small- and medium-sized businesses that went bankrupt registered a 15 percent increase, and you will find that the key support base of the economy is failing.”

“You should recognize that the government policy of supporting a handful of large exporters has failed. The government has argued that the need now is to help in increasing large corporations’ international competitiveness, but the policy has resulted in creating many unstable jobs and cutbacks in the budget for social services, undermining the people’s living conditions,” he added.

The JCP chair concluded, “Without changing the economic policy from one of giving priority to large corporations to one of improving the household economy, there can be no real economic recovery in Japan.”

Democratic Party of Japan President Hatoyama Yukio stressed the need to put an end to bureaucracy’s control of politics, saying, “Government budget allocation is implemented through industrial organizations that accept retired bureaucrats as their executives. This leaves room for huge amounts of money being wasted.”

Shii said, “I agree that the government must break free from bureaucracy control. At the same time, however, the biggest problem in Japan is that politics is being controlled by financial circles.”

He pointed out that the financial circles forced the government to implement policies that have made the labor market very unstable, carried out the reduction of 2.2 billion yen in the annual growth of expenditures for social services, and made the move toward increasing the consumption tax more probable.

“The JCP will work to rid the government of financial circles’ control and to build a people-first Japan. The question is whether political parties have the willingness to do this,” Shii said.

Commenting on the DPJ’s foreign policy, Shii said, “Politicians must free themselves from the fixed idea that confines Japan’s international contribution to military activities and deployment of the Self-Defense Forces” and said that Japan should pull the Maritime Self-Defense Force out of the Indian Ocean.

Shii severely criticized Japan for being the only government that fails to send any diplomatic message aimed at contributing to a diplomatic resolution of the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, even when the United States, China, and South Korea are exploring ways to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels.

He also said that the Japanese government is being called upon to exert its diplomatic capabilities as the only atomic-bombed country in response to U.S. President Obama’s Prague speech calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Shii said, “Japan should make the best use of Article 9 of the Constitution in its diplomacy for world peace.” -Akahata, August 24, 2009