 10,000 people take to Diet wishes to defend constitution and living standards About 10,000 workers, small business owners, and other citizens assembled in Tokyo on May 20 to express their opposition to an adverse constitutional revision and the postal services privatization, and to demand improvement of the nursing-care insurance system, after petitioning government agencies and participating in sit-ins near the Diet Building. The rally was held in two rounds at Hibiya Amphitheater, and about 4,000 people took part in the first round. Speaking on behalf of the Joint Struggle Council for Victory of People's Spring Struggle, Kumagai Kanemichi stated, "Let's together make public demands heard and change the adverse course of politics." Japanese Communist Party members of the Diet Koike Akira and Yamaguchi Tomio addressed the rally and encouraged the participants. A worker from the Postal Industry Workers' Union (Yusanro) said that more than 90 percent of about 3,000 local governments have adopted resolutions in opposition to the privatization of postal services. Marching in demonstration to the Diet and the Ginza, participants exchanged greetings with marchers from the National Federation of Farmers Movement and the New Japan Women's Association, with farmers and consumers chanting, "The government must not lift the ban on U.S. cow meal imports suspected of BSE affection." Workers from the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) urged the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to establish "the minimum wage system at 1,000 yen per hour and equal treatment between the sexes." About 3,600 people joined in the second rally, with 650,000 signatures bearing various kinds of demands such as the demand for less medical health care charges and premiums. Sekiguchi Shunsuke, 78, said, "Hospital-related workers established a 50-member association of Article 9 in Gunma Prefecture. I was a member of the Special Attack Corps (known as the Kamikaze unit) in WWII. I oppose any attempt to revise the Constitution. We started up the association with about 50 people, and are now working to make it bigger." - Akahata, May 21, 2005 |