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| September 6, 2011 |
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| New DPJ Government of Premier Noda |
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Six months have passed since the March 11 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear crisis. Succeeding the Kan Government, a new administration of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) led by Premier Noda was organized a few days ago. The party, however, has scrapped the pledge of party's Manifesto, priority of people's life, and underestimates the situation in which disaster-hit people live after evacuating from ash of death. The Noda government pursues a coalition grouping with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito, intended to raise the rate of the consumption tax and launch a rationalization policy to reform the entire nation.
PRIORITY - TAX INCREASE AND RATIONALIZATION, NOT PEOPLE'S LIFE
Former Prime Minister Kan Naoto, who had declared to quit, visited Fukushima City August 28 when the election campaigns were held to choose the DPJ's top leader. The premier conveyed a message to Governor that it would take 20 years for residents to back home in the zone where a high level of radioactive effect is measured, adding that an interim storage facility should be built in the Prefecture to preserve tainted materials. A faint hope of evacuated people is shattered who expected to return home to reconstruct lives once the nuclear hazard comes to an end.
After residents of Fukushima Prefecture had a health check, a serious fact was found: over 40% of local children are incurred by radiation in the thyroid.
Disaster-hit People Are Out of Sight - DPJ Election
The most crucial task for politicians at the moment is to grasp the exact situation of devastation of the 3/11 natural disaster and subsequent meltdowns at the power plant. Especially, they must explain a fact clearly that people are still in a nuclear emergency and show sincere will to implement measures to cope with the crisis. Politicians must support the suffering evacuees, victims of natural disaster and nuclear contamination, with sincere sympathy to recover the living conditions.
Secondly, lawmakers must open a path to keep and materialize the policy expressed by the then-premier Kan to withdraw from nuclear power generation. The Fukushima crisis has definitely disclosed a myth of safety on nuclear power generation. The archipelago is vulnerable due to earthquakes and monsoon climate. Once an accident happens, it is hard to control to close it. From the very beginning of uranium excavation to the final processing stage, nuclear power generation cannot co-exist with humanity. The Fukushima crisis tells us that nuclear power and human beings cannot live in harmony.
Now let's look at the DPJ election to nominate Prime Minister. The government stresses Creative Reconstruction policy based on big private corporations, instead of rehabilitating local industries, in particular, the primary industry, taking advantage of destruction caused by the natural disaster. It is eager to increase taxes to consolidate the financial basis to let private corporations join the programs to reorganize local communities.
The government plans to surge the consumption tax rate and worsen/ slash public services to balance finance. It implements a deregulation policy package to enhance free trade, including TPP (=trans-pacific partnership) framework. It insists on a direction to carry out simultaneously a growth strategy and financial reconstruction program, mobilizes propaganda tools to evoke imminent threat of China and worldwide financial instability and bring people into the global competitions to survive. The DPJ government puts more importance on transnational capitals as if they sustained the nation.
The government prefers an economic survival war to rebuilding local economy in which people themselves are engaged, not interested in extending social services based on Article 25 of Constitution and creating jobs.
Pledges of Manifesto Thrown Away
The DPJ won in the 2009 election to replace the long-reigned LDP governments: the Koizumi structural adjustment policy, in particular, had produced social gaps and fatigue. The DPJ won because it stressed a policy to put priority on people's life. But the Hatoyama government betrayed people in terms of the Okinawa issue, and the Kan government, again, lost people's trust as he declared to raise the consumption tax rate. The current DPJ government has openly broke the pledges, seeking a grand coalition with the LDP and New Komeito.
Chairman Yonekura Hiromasa of Keidanren (=Japan Business Federation) threatens the government, claiming that the job market will collapse as businesses escape Japan to domicile overseas unless stable supply of electricity is guaranteed, objecting the de-nuclear policy. Employers are arrogant.
The third government of DPJ led by Premier Noda represents common interests of the elite strata based on transnational corporations. Premier openly claims a grand coalition government and demands to increase the consumption tax rate. He is a politician to advocate the Yasukuni Shrine, saying the Class-A War Criminals enshrined are not criminals of the war. He insists on reinforcement of the Japan-US alliance and reduction of the number of parliamentary representatives. The political stage is very dangerous as a rightwing orientation is boosted in the deepening people's distrust in politics.
The new administration's direction will eventually collide not only with compensation policies for disaster-hit people to rebuild lives and save from the nuclear hazards but also with the lives of entire people as it prefers a policy package to surge taxes and cut public services. In their expression it is to pursue a growth strategy and financial recovery at the same time.
The New Socialist Party must keep struggling: organizing people's demands, we must push the government to ensure people's life.
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