Shii criticizes DPJ 'manifesto'

Japan Press Weekly

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

Shii criticizes DPJ 'manifesto'

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said that although the election 'manifesto' (policy platform) of the Democratic Party of Japan contains policies that the JCP can agree on, such as the repeal of the healthcare insurance system for the elderly aged 75 and older and the making high school education tuition-free, it has four serious problems.

Shii stated this in answer to reporters' questions at a news conference on July 28. The four points Shii made are as follows:

(1) It has no intention to end the current government policy of giving priority to defending the interests of the business sector and the Japan-U.S. military alliance. The DPJ argues for the need to put an end to the "rule of government bureaucracy" but it never calls for an end to the rule of the Japanese financial circles and the United States.

(2) In securing revenue sources for the necessary measures in the public interest, the DPJ has no plan to cut the military expenditure and review the excessive tax breaks for big businesses and the wealthy. Without asking them to shoulder an appropriate share of burdens, it will be necessary to raise the consumption tax in order to find fiscal resources.

(3) The DPJ is carefully and actively considering revising the Constitution based on the "proposal for a constitution" the DPJ compiled in 2005. The proposal seeks to enable Japan to participate in collective security activities that include military responses to overseas events. This is nothing but a call for the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution to be amended.

(4) The DPJ calls for cutting the number of House of Representatives proportional representation seats by 80 under the name of eliminating wasteful uses of tax revenues using people's expectation to stop wasting tax money as an excuse. The proportional representation system is a means to reflect the popular will in the Diet. An 80-seat cut in the number of seats in the House of Representatives will only help large parties, such as the DPJ and the Liberal Democratic Party, to occupy Diet seats. This runs counter to democracy. If it is calling for the end of the wasteful use of tax money, what it must do is call for the abolition of government subsidies to political parties.

- Akahata, July 29, 2009