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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

To block passage of adverse bills 50,000 people gather in Tokyo

More than 50,000 people from around the country took part in a national rally in Tokyo on May 27 to oppose adverse bills submitted one after another by the government in the current session of the Diet which will end in three weeks.

Four major bills have been submitted to the Diet to adversely revise the health insurance system, to lead to the adverse revision of the Constitution, to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education, and to establish the notion of conspiracy crime.

Speaking on behalf of the organizers, National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) President Kumagai Kanemichi pointed out that a nationwide grassroots movement in opposition to the highhandedness of the Koizumi government as well as of the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties is increasingly gathering strength. He called on the public to join the movement in order to block the bills and to open up a path for a new future.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his speech called on the participants to block the four adverse bills by disallowing the extension of the Diet session.

Shii pointed out the major feature of today's situation concerning the issues of the widening social gap and the increasing poverty rate, and concerning the issues relating to peace. He pointed out that the aberrant policy of subservience to the United States has caused flagrant contradictions as seen in the realignment of the U.S. forces and the push for malrevision of the Constitution.

Referring to the adverse revision of the Fundamental Law of Education, he said that two basic infringements of the freedom inscribed in the Constitution, namely freedom of thought and freedom of education, have to be addressed. Emphasizing that history is made by people's struggles, he called for making the rally a new starting point for the struggle to fundamentally replace the politics subservient to the United States and centered on the interests of the business circles with a new people-first politics.
- Akahata, May 28, 2006