Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2024 March 27 - April 2 [POLITICS]

JCP Chair Tamura at FCCJ resolves to help realize gender equal Japan

Japanese Communist Party Chair Tamura Tomoko, speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on March 26, expressed her determination to work for a gender equal Japan as the first female JCP chair.

Tamura said, “A key to overcoming Japan’s prolonged economic stagnation is Japan shifting to an economic system that guarantees people’s livelihoods and human rights,” and emphasized the need to achieve an economic system so that fundamental human rights for both men and women, such as equal employment opportunities and equal pay for equal work, can take precedence.

Asked what is needed to increase the number of female leaders, Tamura answered, “It is essential for politics to create a social system that supports female-specific phenomena like menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth,” and added, “I, too, am taking on the responsibility of chairing the JCP, hoping that I can develop my potential ability with the help of the people around me. I’d like to call on all women to take up the challenge.”

When a reporter commented that the JCP policy is “different from those of traditional communism,” she said, “Japan has a rich productive capacity and has developed a democratic system. If a highly-developed capitalist country moves away from its profit-first principle, human freedom will be realized. This is the future society our party aims for.”

In response to a reporter’s question about the joint struggle among opposition parties, Tamura replied, “We are always open to joining forces with opposition parties if we can unite on urgent issues that the public desperately needs to have addressed.”

To the question of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she answered, “In order to stop the war, the international community should stand in solidarity on the single point, “Abide by the UN Charter!”