Give top priority to measures for elderly: Tokyoites want in survey

A Tokyo Metropolitan Government survey shows that Tokyoites are calling for measures for elderly people as a top (44.7% of the total) priority item of the Tokyo Metropolitan government.

The earnest demand, supported by almost all age brackets, continues to rank at the top for the last 15 consecutive years, showing that uneasiness is growing about old age security, even among the youth.

Ranking second is medical care and health (36.5%), and third is the household garbage and industrial wastes issue (25.3%).

Asked by an Akahata reporter on a street in downtown Tokyo, a 27-year-old woman said: "I have a grandmother who needs a care helper. But it took money when the nursing care insurance system started in April 2000. So we stopped asking for a helper. We keenly demand that nursing care fees be made a basic right."

A 39-year-old woman nurse on home visiting said: "Once I knew that families with the elderly are paying us by reducing their other budgets, I feel reluctant to visit them. But when I heard Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo say that the welfare budget was drastically cut by the central and Tokyo governments, I stopped supporting the 'self-help' which was stressed by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro. If I didn't hear Shii's speech, I might have voted for the Liberal Democratic Party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election."

Kaneko Masaru, professor at Rissho University, told Akahata that welfare and medical care policies must be the central task of local governments. But the Tokyo Metropolitan government under Governor Ishihara Shintaro neglects to care for its residents.

In its campaign for Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on June 24, the JCP says, "Give the elderly free tickets again," and "Cut nursing care insurance premiums." (end)