March 30, 2019

The election campaign in 41 prefectures and 17 major cities officially started on March 29. The voting day for the first round of nationwide local elections is April 7, together with eleven gubernatorial and six major city mayoral races which are already underway.

The Japanese Communist Party has fielded 243 and 185 candidates running for prefectural assemblies and major city assemblies, respectively.

JCP Chair Shii Kazuo gave a kick-off speech in Kanagawa Prefecture, appealing to the crowd to support the JCP, calling for reducing the high premiums of the national healthcare insurance as well as for stopping the planned increase in the consumption tax rate to 10%.

Shii pointed out that large food companies will uniformly press ahead with price increases this spring while 80% of the general public in many opinion polls said they "could see little or no sign" of economic recovery. He criticized the sales tax hike, under the current situation where both household consumption and real wages are suffering a decline, for its potential to cause a devastating impact on the economy.

Shii suggested that a review in the preferential taxation for the wealthy and large corporations will generate seven trillion yen, and that an expansion of domestic demand and of household spending will become possible with this 7-trillion yen not with new revenues from the consumption tax increase.

Kanagawa is the second largest prefecture in terms of U.S. military bases after Okinawa. U.S. Osprey aircraft sometimes fly to the U.S. Atsugi base which is located in the prefecture, and the present governor is a person who advocates continued coexistence with the U.S. facilities. This governor publicly stated, "A new age needs a new constitution," acting as a pawn of the Abe government push for constitutional revision.

Shii emphasized, "A peaceful coexistence with military bases can never be possible," adding, "Please entrust your demand for the protection of the pacifist Constitution with us. You can trust the JCP which has consistently maintained the principle of opposing war and working for peace for 97 years since the party's founding."

Past related articles:
> Double elections for governor and mayor will take place in Osaka [March 9, 2019]
> JCP publishes platform for upcoming nationwide simultaneous local elections [January, 19, 2019]