INTERVIEW: JCP eager to create divided diet toward ousting Abe administration

July 9, 2019

Tokyo,--Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii has emphasized that the JCP and other opposition parties should unite to win the July 21 election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, to create a divided Diet as a step toward toppling the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"The Abe administration is now at dead end both in domestic politics and on the diplomatic front," Shii said in a recent interview.

"In the triennial election, I want to call on people to cooperate to oust the Abe administration and change the country's politics to make Japan a country where each and every person can have hopes and live in peace," he said.

Shii said, "We're determined to turn the Liberal Democratic Party, its Komeito ally and groups supporting the ruling pair into a minority, create a divided Diet and let opposition parties take the initiative of politics to force Abe to dissolve the House of Representatives for a snap general election."

"We aim to form an opposition-led government" by capturing a majority also in the Lower House through the possible general election, Shii stressed. "We want to leverage the Upper House election for the goal."

On constitutional amendment, which Abe, also LDP president, regards as a key issue for the Upper House election, Shii said that the JCP is actively discussing the matter, noting that no political party is avoiding debates on possible revisions of the supreme law.

"Whether or not to support Abe's proposal to amend pacifist Article 9 of the top law will be a key issue," Shii said.

Abe has been seeking to clarify the existence of the Self-Defense Forces in the article, which renounces war and bans Japan from holding land, sea or air forces, and other war potential as means of settling international disputes.

In the election, The JCP aims to gain 8.5 million votes under the proportional representation system. "It's a high goal, but I think it's not impossible to achieve if we try hard," Shii said.

A total of 124 seats--74 in prefectural constituencies and 50 for the proportional representation format--will be up for grabs in the July 21 election. The JCP currently has 14 Upper

House seats, and eight of them--three constituency seats and five proportional representation seats--will be contested in the upcoming election.

The JCP aims to gain seven or more proportional representation seats, Shii said, adding, "We're resolved to maintain the three constituency seats at any cost and are trying to increase the number dramatically."

"I would say no more than that all of our candidates aim to win," Shii said, asked about the number of seats the JCP targets in prefectural constituencies where only one seat each will be contested.

"Cooperation among opposition parties is progressing compared with the time when the previous Upper House election was held three years ago," Shii said. "We do hope to attain the target."

Shii reiterated his party's opposition to the planned consumption tax hike from 8 pct to 10 pct in October.

He said: "We oppose the consumption tax itself. Raising the tax rate during the current economic doldrums is an absolutely foolish measure."

Shii also voiced concerns about the public pension system, following a recent Financial Services Agency report that an elderly couple living on pensions would need to additionally amass about 20 million yen in savings for survival during 30 years after retirement.

"It's the responsibility of politics to face up to the reality of the insufficient pension system and change it to a reliable system," he stressed.

Shii set the JCP apart from other opposition parties, saying that it aims to abolish Japan's host-nation support for U.S. troops stationed in the country and impose fair burdens on rich people and big companies as ways to secure financial resources for policy measures. Jiji Press