JCP-LDP direct showdown over Japan's course in 21st century features Upper House election

A fierce political battle has started all over Japan for the July 29 House of Councilors election.

On July 5, a week before the campaign officially started, Japanese Communist Party Central Committee Chair Tetsuzo Fuwa was in Kyoto on a stumping tour. His speech at Kyoto City's largest gymnasium was broadcast live via communication satellite for audiences in seven other municipalities in Kyoto Prefecture.

Fuwa stressed that the JCP is the only party capable of salvaging the nation out of the present crisis which the Liberal Democratic Party is responsible for.

JCP members and supporters throughout the country are distributing door to door an Extra Akahata to let voters know the JCP's history and its achievements in parliament as well as its vision for a democratic change within the framework of capitalism to be attained by a staged approach.

The JCP has 25 candidates for the 48-seat national proportional representation constituency and 47 candidates for the prefectural constituencies in all of the 47 prefectures (73 seats).

The Japanese Upper House election is held every three years to replace 121 out of 242 seats.

This year's Upper House election will be held under the adversely revised system to allow voters to write either a party name or a candidate name on the ballot for the proportional representation constituency.

The JCP is calling on voters to write the party's name on the ballot, while many other parties are standing famous persons, including TV personalities and sportsmen in an attempt to attract voters.

The JCP now has 23 seats in the 242-seat Upper House. Eight of its seats are up for election. It aims to securely maintain the eight seats it got in the 1995 election (five in the proportional representation constituency and three in prefectural constituencies). (end)