Japan Press Weekly

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2013 January 16 - 22 [TOKYO]

Tokyo’s new head proposes budget disregarding people’s lives

Tokyo Governor Inose Naoki, who won the governor’s seat at the end of last year, on January 18 released a budget draft for FY 2013 which reflects his predecessor Ishihara Shintaro’s pro-large development and anti-people policies.

Even though the total amount of next year’s budget increased by 1.9% to about 6.3 trillion yen, the governor reduced budget expenditures on items needed to protect Tokyoites’ lives such as welfare services, employment measures, and support for smaller businesses.

For example, the fund for improvement and construction of medical institutions for bedridden aged people is slashed by 30% and the fund for measures to help young people and contingent workers to find jobs is also cut by 30%.

In the 2013 budget draft, what the Tokyo Metropolitan Government puts the most emphasis on is to promote large-scale development projects, including the construction of expressways, and a project to create a special zone called “Asian Headquarters” to attract foreign companies.

The Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Members’ Group on the same day issued a statement, stressing the need to change the ways in which the budget is allocated.

In the statement, the JCP points out that if the Tokyo governor cancels unnecessary projects, it will easily enable dramatic increases in the budgets for welfare, employment, support for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and disaster prevention.

The JCP said that it will work hard to pressure the governor to change his position to create a Tokyo in which people can live without anxiety and realize Tokyo citizens’ demands.