January 28, 2016
Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on January 27 used his question time in the plenary meeting of the House of Representatives to illustrate the collapse of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s economic policies and presented a proposal for the revitalization of the Japanese economy.
The JCP chair showed the reality of PM Abe’s “Abenomics” economic policy package based on government statistics to criticize Abe boasting that his policy has created jobs, increased wages, and succeeded in putting Japan’s economy in a recovery track.
Shii criticized Abe for using a misleading description that the number of jobs increased by 1.17 million between the October-December quarter of 2012 and July-September quarter of 2015. He went on to point out that during the same period, it is only the number of non-regular jobs that increased while 10,000 regular jobs were terminated.
Concerning Abe’s boast about higher wages, Shii stated that workers’ real wages dropped by 5% in the past three years, which means that a worker who earned four million yen in 2012 lost 200,000 yen in income.
Shii said to Abe, “The need is to review and seriously reflect on the negative impact of Abenomics.” But the prime minister merely replied that he will further push forward with his economic policies.
In order to tackle poverty and economic inequality and to revitalize the economy, Shii proposed to cancel the plan to increase the consumption tax rate to 10%, improve, not worsen, social welfare programs, create labor rules to ensure that workers can work with human dignity, and withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership framework.
PM Abe insisted that the government will implement the consumption tax hike as currently scheduled unless Japan is hit by a disastrous incident such as an economic crisis like the Lehman Shock or a massive earthquake. Regarding the TPP, Abe expressed his intention to seek Diet approval immediately after the planned signing ceremony of the pact.
The JCP chair showed the reality of PM Abe’s “Abenomics” economic policy package based on government statistics to criticize Abe boasting that his policy has created jobs, increased wages, and succeeded in putting Japan’s economy in a recovery track.
Shii criticized Abe for using a misleading description that the number of jobs increased by 1.17 million between the October-December quarter of 2012 and July-September quarter of 2015. He went on to point out that during the same period, it is only the number of non-regular jobs that increased while 10,000 regular jobs were terminated.
Concerning Abe’s boast about higher wages, Shii stated that workers’ real wages dropped by 5% in the past three years, which means that a worker who earned four million yen in 2012 lost 200,000 yen in income.
Shii said to Abe, “The need is to review and seriously reflect on the negative impact of Abenomics.” But the prime minister merely replied that he will further push forward with his economic policies.
In order to tackle poverty and economic inequality and to revitalize the economy, Shii proposed to cancel the plan to increase the consumption tax rate to 10%, improve, not worsen, social welfare programs, create labor rules to ensure that workers can work with human dignity, and withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership framework.
PM Abe insisted that the government will implement the consumption tax hike as currently scheduled unless Japan is hit by a disastrous incident such as an economic crisis like the Lehman Shock or a massive earthquake. Regarding the TPP, Abe expressed his intention to seek Diet approval immediately after the planned signing ceremony of the pact.
