May 28, 2025

The Japanese Communist Party Kanagawa Prefectural Committee and the JCP prefectural assemblymembers’ group on May 27 submitted to the Kanagawa Labor Bureau a written request demanding that Labor Minister Fukuoka Takamaro take action to have Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. maintain its current labor force and help to protect local economies.

The JCP made a similar request to Kanagawa Governor Kuroiwa Hiroshi.

Nissan two weeks earlier announced that as part of its restructuring measures, the company will cut 20,000 jobs globally and shut down two domestic plants in Kanagawa Prefecture along with three overseas plants.

The JCP in its document urged the labor minister and the governor to press the auto company to work to maintain jobs to the maximum extent possible and work to evade negative impacts of its restructuring plan on local economies. Other demands in the JCP document include setting up a cooperative framework in the prefecture composed of municipalities, labor unions, and other parties concerned to provide consulting services to Nissan workers whose workplaces will be shut down.

In the submission, JCP prefectural assemblymember Isaka Shinya stressed that it is important that the central government together with prefectural and relevant municipal governments work on the issues related to Nissan’s downsizing plan.