Japan Press Weekly

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2020 July 15 - 21 [POLITICS]

Opposition parties to push gov’t to put ‘Go To Travel Campaign’ on back burner

The Japanese Communist Party and other opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on July 15 at a meeting of their Diet affairs chiefs in the Diet building resolved to request the Abe government not to launch a campaign for boosting the corona-affected tourism sector, aka the “Go To Travel Campaign”, as infections continue to increase.

The government plans to initiate the “Go To Travel Campaign” next week as part of measures to facilitate the nation’s tourism recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

At a press conference after the meeting, JCP Diet Affairs Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji cited a surge in COVID-19 cases in major cities such as Tokyo, and pointed out, “The government should not launch the ‘Go To’ campaign uniformly across the nation. This is the majority opinion.” He added, “It is better to initiate the campaign in stages based on the situation in each region.”

Kokuta also referred to heavy rain-related disasters now striking many areas of Japan, and said, “The government should use the 1.7 trillion yen allocated for the ‘Go To Campaign’ to alleviate hardships in the tourism sector in the disaster-hit regions.”

In the Diet affairs chiefs’ meeting, in addition to the decision to demand the postponement of the campaign, opposition parties pushed the government to urge the U.S. forces in Japan to disclose all information regarding the COVID-19 situation on U.S. bases.

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Later on the same day, at an off-session meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, opposition party lawmakers in line with the agreement by the Diet affairs chiefs pressed the government to put the tourism revival campaign on the back burner.

Economic Revitalization Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi, who is in charge of the ongoing health crisis, said, “I’ll convey the experts’ advice and analysis regarding the current situation of COVID-19 to the Transport and Tourism Minister who is responsible for the campaign in order to help the minister make a decision on the matter.”

Past related articles:
> JCP calls for compensation to accompany business suspensions to address COVID-19 spike in Tokyo [July 14, 2020]
> 60 new COVID-19 cases found among US military in Okinawa [July 12, 2020]
> Okinawa gov’t to urge US military to disclose details of COVID-19 cases at Futenma base [July 9, 2020]