It is time to correct distortions in government policies: JCP Ichida confronts Fukuda

   Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi in his interpellation in the House of Councilors plenary session on October 5 questioned Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo about his policies, stating, “Mr. prime minister, you are tasked to face up to the severe verdict that the public delivered on the ruling block in the recent House of Councilors election.”

   Ichida took up the Education Ministry’s textbook screening policy of denying the fact that the Japanese Imperial Army forced Okinawans into “mass suicides” during WWII, an issue that symbolizes the scar left by the Abe government that called for a “breakaway from the postwar regime.”

   Referring to Okinawans’ sentiments expressed in the September 29 Okinawan rally demanding retraction of the government policy in which he took part, Ichida stated, “Okinawans were without doubt forced into the ‘mass suicides’ by the Army. Without such coercion, who could ever kill their own children?” Ichida demanded that the government fulfill its responsibility to take back the Education Ministry’s order distorting the historical facts.

   Ichida also criticized the government “structural reform” policy for undermining living standards and the social welfare services. He urged the government to (i) abandon the beneficiary-pays system imposed by the disabled person self-support law, (ii) stop invalidating national health insurance cards and reduce national health insurance premiums that far exceed the ability to pay, (iii) cancel the introduction of the medical-care system for the elderly aged 75 or more that will impose intolerable burdens on the elderly, (iv) undertake pension system reform, including shortening of the minimum premium payment period to be eligible for a pension (currently 25 years), and (v) provide assistance to “economic refugees” sleeping in “Internet cafes” and eradicate staffing agency-dispatched day laborers.

   Fukuda refused to cancel the introduction of the medical-system for the elderly by stating, “The course of the new system is appropriate.” Fukuda also defended the government measure to invalidate health insurance cards on the grounds of maintaining the health of the system and refused to shorten the pension eligibility period, stating, “It would encourage people to not pay premiums and increase the number of pensioners with low benefits.”                           - Akahata, October 6, 2007