July 30, 2015
Komei Party Chief Representative Yamaguchi Natsuo in the ongoing election campaign for the Sendai City Assembly (Miyagi Pref.) railed against citizens opposing the war bills.
As Diet discussions revealed the unconstitutional nature of the bills, the Komei Party is losing public support. Many members of the Komei’s key supporting organization, Soka Gakkai, have launched a protest against the war bills.
The campaign for the Sendai City Assembly election officially kicked off on July 24.
Just a week ago in the National Diet, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties used their majority to ram the bills, which the government refers to as the legislation for peace and security, through the House of Representatives.
The Komei Party together with Liberal Democratic Party members in the Sendai City Assembly denied a citizens’ petition demanding that the city assembly adopt a statement seeking thorough Diet deliberation on the bills. Given this fact, it is natural for Sendai citizens to want to know about each political party’s or candidate’s stance regarding the war bills in the ongoing election campaign.
On July 26, Yamaguchi visited Sendai City to support Komei Party candidates’ street campaigns. Seeking to prevent the growing public movements against the war bills from affecting the election results, Yamaguchi said, “City assemblypersons have nothing to do with issues regarding the national government such as the peace and security legislation and the Self-Defense Forces. What they should focus on is the recovery from the 3.11 disaster and other local issues.”
This revealed his intent to intimidate local people from raising their voices against the central government policies.
The Komei Party is struggling desperately to escape fierce public criticism under a situation where the party’s slogan “political party of peace” has become meaningless.
Past related articles:
> Abe Cabinet support rate takes a dive [July 20, 2015]
> How can Komei Party call itself a ‘pacifist’ party? [July 1, 2014]
> Komei works as accelerator of runaway LDP policies [December 16, 2013]
As Diet discussions revealed the unconstitutional nature of the bills, the Komei Party is losing public support. Many members of the Komei’s key supporting organization, Soka Gakkai, have launched a protest against the war bills.
The campaign for the Sendai City Assembly election officially kicked off on July 24.
Just a week ago in the National Diet, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties used their majority to ram the bills, which the government refers to as the legislation for peace and security, through the House of Representatives.
The Komei Party together with Liberal Democratic Party members in the Sendai City Assembly denied a citizens’ petition demanding that the city assembly adopt a statement seeking thorough Diet deliberation on the bills. Given this fact, it is natural for Sendai citizens to want to know about each political party’s or candidate’s stance regarding the war bills in the ongoing election campaign.
On July 26, Yamaguchi visited Sendai City to support Komei Party candidates’ street campaigns. Seeking to prevent the growing public movements against the war bills from affecting the election results, Yamaguchi said, “City assemblypersons have nothing to do with issues regarding the national government such as the peace and security legislation and the Self-Defense Forces. What they should focus on is the recovery from the 3.11 disaster and other local issues.”
This revealed his intent to intimidate local people from raising their voices against the central government policies.
The Komei Party is struggling desperately to escape fierce public criticism under a situation where the party’s slogan “political party of peace” has become meaningless.
Past related articles:
> Abe Cabinet support rate takes a dive [July 20, 2015]
> How can Komei Party call itself a ‘pacifist’ party? [July 1, 2014]
> Komei works as accelerator of runaway LDP policies [December 16, 2013]
