Building New (and Better) Lives

What the Japanese people today face is a choice over the "structure" that affect their lives and usage of taxpayers窶 money.

Are voters prepared to continue with the structure established by the LDP under which central government officials control expenditures and tax revenues are wasted? Or will voters demand a change to the new structure proposed by the DPJ which will thoroughly eliminate "wasteful expenditures" and use tax revenues to help people build new and better lives? That is the choice voters face as we move to decide Japan's future.

Has the government fixed the problems of "vanished pensions" and "deliberately erased pensions"? Has the government abolished the new health insurance scheme for people aged 75 and over, a scheme which discriminates on the basis of age? Can ordinary people's finances cope with the high price of gasoline, kerosene and other fuels? Has the government clarified the full extent of the incidents of illegal reselling of tainted rice and identified who was responsible?

No, not one of these issues has been resolved. That is because the government, central government officials and industry still maintain cozy relationships, and the corrupted systems put in place by the LDP still remain.

Based on a core principle of "People's Lives First", DPJ has both the vision and the concrete policies for changing the "structure" that affect people's lives. The DPJ will establish a new government, put tax revenues back in the hands of the people, and build "new (and better) lives". The DPJ, will fulfill our pledges to the Japanese people. I, Ichiro Ozawa, will do it.

Ichiro Ozawa
President
The Democratic Party of Japan