Kan Naoto resigns as DPJ leader

Democratic Party of Japan President Kan Naoto on May 10 announced that he would resign from the post for his failure to pay pension premiums.

Although a significant number of DPJ parliamentarians expressed objection to the agreement reached between the DPJ and the ruling parties on handling the pension reform bill, the DPJ Dietmembers' assembly ended up in giving the DPJ leadership a carte blanche to make the final decision.

Commenting on Kan's resignation as DPJ leader, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on the same day said, "The DPJ is seriously responsible for agreeing with the ruling parties on facilitating passage of the government-proposed pension cut bill through the House of Representatives.

Ichida pointed out that the three-party agreement involves serious problems in procedure as well as content. He said that the DPJ's sudden change away from its previous call for the bill to be sent back to the Lower House committee and the three parties' attempt to impose their accord on the other parties and the Diet contravenes parliamentary democracy.

Ichida stressed the danger of the three-party agreement paving the way for a consumption tax rate increase to fund the pension program. He added that the public will not condone the bill's passage through the Diet without the Diet dealing with the issue of parliamentarians who failed to pay pension premiums. (end)