Prime Minister Abe Shinzo delivered his policy speech on the opening day of the Ordinary Session of the 193rd Diet. He stressed on amendment of the Constitution which he has referred to since New Year days. This year commemorates the 70th year of implementation of the Peace Constitution. We, members of the New Socialist Party, are firmly determined to defend and put it into practice in our daily life. Let’s continue to struggle.


CELEBRATING 70TH YEAR OF CONSTITUTION, DEFEND AND PUT IT INTO PRACTICE!


Abe Government Relies on Fake Data


At the beginning of his speech Premier Abe mentioned a policy of the government, using a phrase of ‘nation building to become the brightest in the center of the world’; it bases on ‘the US-Japan alliance’ and lies in ‘diplomacy to look at the world with a bird’s-eye view over the terrestrial globe’ He employed various figures at random to praise achievements, including 9% in the GDP growth, a salary hike for three consecutive years, a reduction by 2% of children’s poverty rate, and so on.


Incidentally, the so-called 9% GDP growth means a rate in nominal term. According to an estimate on the economy announced in November 2016 by the Cabinet Office, the rate is as low as 1.0% for the Fiscal 2017 in real term.


Premier Abe is proud of the decrease in children’s poverty rate by 2%, but the White Paper of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor of the 2014 version says that a relative poverty rate of children is the worst, recording 16.3%, which means one in every six children suffers, totaling approximately 3.25 million. A reduction by 2% represents only 65 thousand children. The figure is of shame, not of pride at all.


He also said a job recruit rate is the most favorable after 25 years of scarcity, but that reflects an increase of the number of irregular workers employed on the part-time basis in the wholesale & retail shops and restaurants and in the welfare service sector in which employees suffer from unstable conditions and chronic low wages. A good recruit rate of 3.40 constitutes these facts. It does not mean better working conditions. The government’s statistics have a magical power as is shown in the salary hike for three consecutive years.

Contemporary Version of Social Order Maintenance Act

What is the idea of Premier Abe on nation building? He avoided referring to his Abenomics economy stimulus policy as it was proven to be a failure and stressed on ‘tourism to attract 40 million visitors’. Taking advantage of the 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics, he mentioned on ‘building a safe and orderly nation’: his is to present to the Diet a bill on conspiracy for the fourth time, a law called a contemporary version of the wartime Social Order Maintenance Act. The extraordinarily unpopular bill was scrapped three times due to strong opposition of people.


He emphasized to build ‘a society in which 100 million people could work actively’, referring to vigorous social participation of women, better conditions for workers in the nursing facilities of young children and the elderly, and grant-type fellowship programs for students. But a speed of policy implementation is dull under the Abe government whose life is longer than that of Premier Nakasone in the 1980s.


Premier Abe even praised in his speech of the budget reduction by 500 billion Yen in the social services. His stance is that people should owe costs. That cannot be accepted.


The most prominent in the Fiscal 2017 budget compilation is military expenditure. The biggest amount is appropriated in the history, which is 5.1685 trillion Yen, including expenses as host nation support of the US military forces, an increase by 2.3% than the original budget of Fiscal 2016 (5.0541 trillion Yen). The figure keeps going up for five consecutive years.


We Must Win in General Elections


The most urgent task for us is to enforce Premier Abe to resign. Opposition parties must get united to struggle inside and outside the Diet House. General Elections are scheduled in late autumn. We must defeat the Abe government.



January 31, 2017