JCP:Government must change policy to one defending lives

Japan Press Weekly

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

JCP:Government must change policy to one defending lives

In the House of Councilors plenary session on February 3, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi in his questioning on behalf of the JCP criticized government policies for running counter to the prime minister’s policy speech respecting lives, as seen in the continuation of the discriminatory medical services for the elderly, unstable jobs for workers, and the U.S. Futenma base issue.

Ichida said that the promise to abolish the adverse medical services for the elderly has not been kept, and the promise that health insurance premiums shall not be raised is on the verge of being broken. He said that in Japan, patients have to pay 30 percent of their medical costs, and elderly patients, 10-30 percent.

He urged the government to completely ban the dispatch by staffing agencies of temporary workers to production lines in a revised worker dispatch law. He argued that this is indispensable because workers’ lives and livelihoods will continue to be threatened as long as corporations are allowed to arbitrarily terminate the work contracts of temporary workers.

On the question of the U.S. military bases, a direct threat on people’s lives, Ichida denounced the government for being irresponsible and servile in trying to offer another piece of land in return for the U.S. Futenma base that was built on land the U.S. forces had illegally taken from Okinawans. He said that the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement is the epitome of inequality and that the extraordinary state of subservience should be immediately corrected.

On the suspicious donations provided to Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ozawa Ichiro, Ichida said that the prime minister should take the initiative to enable the Diet to make Ozawa bear political and moral responsibility for the scandal, irrespective of whether he will be criminally prosecuted or not.

Prime Minister Hatoyama said that the deferred abolition of the discriminatory medical services system against the elderly is not a breach of promise and that patients have to shoulder a portion of their medical costs. On the Futenma base issue, he persisted on seeking an alternative transfer site, and he accepts the present SOFA as is.

On the suspicions hanging over Ozawa, he simply said that the criminal investigation will reach a settlement.

- Akahata, February 4, 2010