Japan Press Weekly

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2019 June 26 - July 2 [POLITICS]

LDP sends its Dietmembers booklets abusively attacking opposition parties

The Liberal Democratic Party head office has distributed copies of a booklet attacking opposition parties and some media in an abusive manner to LDP Dietmembers as part of their election preparation.

The booklet carries totally false information. It describes the Japanese Communist Party as a party which "rejects democracy" and the increasing cooperation among opposition parties as "subversive acts against Japan". It contains ignoble illustrations of presumably JCP Chair Shii Kazuo, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Edano Yukio, and Democratic Party for the People head Tamaki Yuichiro. It is also abusive toward Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo Shimbun, and Okinawa Times by branding these newspapers as "media that purvey fake news".

Reportedly, the LDP headquarters sent each of its Dietmembers 25 copies of the booklet on June 11 with a note saying, "Please share this book with your campaigners and make good use of it as background information for your campaign speeches."

However, LDP General Council chief Kato Katsunobu on June 21 at a press conference said that he has not read the book and does not know in what context the party headquarters distributed it, unintentionally exposing the party's irresponsibility.

The booklet editor and publisher has an Internet news site called "terracePRESS", but who actually operates this site and how to contact the site manager are unknown.