Japan Press Weekly

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2007 February 28 - March 6 [POLITICS]

6,500 people participate in rally in Fukuoka calling for reducing poverty

In Fukuoka City, about 6,500 people participated in a rally on March 4 calling for reducing poverty and social disparities and in opposition to an adverse revision of the Constitution.

On behalf of the organizers, Fukuoka Prefecture People’s Spring Struggle Joint Committee Chair Nishiyama Toru said, “In order to reduce poverty, let us promote cooperation based on demands agreed on by various social strata of prefectural residents.”

A representative of disabled people’s organizations criticized the “self-support assistance law” that requires the disabled to pay 10 percent of the cost for services they receive, saying, “It is an inhumane law that denies disabled people their right to live.”

A Fukuoka Prefectural Construction Workers’ Union member stated, “The decrease in construction workers’ wages threatens our livelihood, and we are virtually in the ‘working-poor’ category. We are paid only 10,000 to 15,000 yen a day for long hours of work.” He said that his union will carry out a campaign demanding a wage increase.

Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Nihi Sohei in his greeting stated, “Let us join forces to block the Abe Cabinet’s outrageous policies and replace them with ones prioritizing peace and the improvement of living conditions.”

The rally adopted an appeal calling for further efforts to defend jobs, livelihoods, and the safety of the public, and the participants marched in demonstration.