JCP Shii finds no sign of regret in Prime Minister Koizumi's policy speech

"Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro failed to address the three major issues which the people want him to address," said Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo after the prime minister's policy speech on February 4.

At a news conference on the same day, Shii pointed out that Koizumi failed to touch upon the recent exclusion of NGOs from an international conference, the dismissal of the foreign minister, the political corruption cases related to public works projects, and the BSE question.

"Prime Minister Koizumi used a refrain of 'structural reform,' but failed to tell the people clearly what the structural reform would bring about," Shii said.

Referring to the economic and fiscal policy speech by Takenaka Heizo, in which he said manpower is the source of economic growth and added value, Shii said that this shows that the Koizumi structural reform regards human beings only as a tool for making money.

On the proposal for "legislation to provide for a response to national emergencies," Shii said the prime minister stopped short of explaining the necessity of such legislation.

He strongly criticized the government for moving toward bulldozing through wartime legislation without making public its real aim of establishing a system that enables the government to mobilize the nation to wars jointly carried out by Japan and the United States against other countries.

Commenting on the prime minister's use of the emperor's tanka poem which compared the war-devastated land to a severe winter, Shii said, "Prime Minister Koizumi regarded Japan's devastation caused by its war of aggression as something like a natural phenomenon in order to describe how Japanese people arose to reconstruct the country. He has no regret over what Japan did at the time." (end)