ニュース 2014/03/27 Ohata states intention of further pursuing issue of NHK President Katsuto Momii’s appointment in debate over broadcaster’s budget On March 27, DPJ Secretary General Akihiro Ohata held his regular press conference at party headquarters. He commented on the following topics: (1) reasons for the DPJ’s opposition to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) budget, (2) the start of Diet debate on the bill regarding the provision of income assistance to agricultural households, and three bills entitled “maintaining our traditional rural homeland”, (3) submission of a proposed revision to the law relating to Great East Japan Earthquake special reconstruction zones, (4) the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea and the delayed response of the Japanese government to this. In a plenary session of the House of Representatives held that same afternoon, six opposition parties had opposed the approval of the NHK budget, which had hitherto customarily been approved unanimously by the Diet. Ohata explained that the reason for this opposition was that despite the fact that calls had been made for the early resignation of NHK President Momii, describing him as an inappropriate appointment, such as during questions in the House of Representatives Committee on Internal Affairs and Communications, Prime Minister Abe and others in the administration with responsibility for Momii’s appointment had totally failed to set forth a clear direction on this matter. Ohata stated, “I think that all viewers of NHK around the country must be wondering whether their broadcasts will truly be politically neutral with such a person at the helm as President.” He said that the DPJ, in conjunction with other opposition parties who had opposed the NHK budget, would continue to strengthen their pursuit of this issue in the House of Councillors. Ohata also referred to the bill regarding the provision of income assistance to individual agricultural households which had been submitted to the Diet by the DPJ at the same time as two government-sponsored agriculture-related bills, and the three bills relating to “payments for maintaining our traditional rural homeland” which had been jointly submitted by the DPJ, the People’s Life Party and the Social Democratic Party, and had been the subject of discussions in the plenary session of the House of Representatives that day. He stated, “It is a fact that farmers themselves are starting to feel extremely uneasy overall about the two agricultural bills submitted by the government, and today we engaged in questions from the perspective of such conditions on the ground. Our proposal contains assistance measures that centre on farmers themselves, but as the DPJ questioners suggested, it seems that the government proposal is directed at farmers as a group and so any assistance will be indirect rather than direct. We asked whether this would be the case, but the response was the rather incomprehensible one of calling it indirect while at the same time saying that it was direct assistance.” Ohata went on to explain the content of proposed revision of the legislation relating to special reconstruction zones, which had been jointly submitted to the House of Representatives on March 25 by the DPJ, the People’s Life Party, Your Party and Yui no To. He said that a variety of issues relating to land appropriation lay behind the delay in reconstructing the disaster-affected areas. In view of this, the revisions would relax legal provisions in the City Planning Act which limit those projects which can engage in land appropriation to those constructing 50 household units or more, and allow small-scale construction projects of 5 to 49 households to also be entitled to expropriate land. Moreover, should verdicts regarding property surrender be delayed, making it difficult to proceed speedily with disaster reconstruction, special exemptions would be established enabling entrepreneurs to use land immediately even while land appropriation proceedings are still in progress. Ohata stated, “We would like to revise the legal provisions in order to enable land appropriation in the disaster-affected areas to proceed smoothly, as well as promoting the construction of public housing for victims of the disaster and renewing calls urging the government to move forward with thorough suicide-prevention measures.” With regard to the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea, Ohata said, “This violates the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration, the Six Party Talks Joint Statement and Security Council resolutions, and the DPJ would like to issue a strong protest to North Korea.” Ohata also criticised the response of the Japanese government, saying, “Although the missiles were launched at around 2 pm, this was not announced until around 5 pm. The actions of the Prime Minister’s Office can by no means be described as speedy. It is also apparent that the NSC was not convened.” He stressed, “It is necessary for the government to review and improve their internal procedures so that they can engage in a speedy and appropriate response, analysing the facts of the matter speedily and making clear to the Japanese people what actually occurred.”