 |
2015/03/27
Okada speaks to Café Democrats meeting, explains DPJ stance on correcting disparities and national security legislation
|
On March 27, DPJ President Katsuya Okada spoke at a meeting of Café Democrats, the exchange and discussion forum with diplomats stationed in Tokyo.
First, Okada referred to the issue of disparities, saying, “Making sure that the economy grows is of course important, but the same can be said of redistributing the fruits of this growth. I pointed out during debate in the Diet that [the policies of] the Abe administration is decidedly lacking in this respect.” Okada stressed that the DPJ would endeavor to correct disparities, explaining: “According to OECD statistics, the comparative poverty rate for single-parent families in Japan is more than 50%. This is a serious problem. I believe that Japan should be developing policies to target this issue.” He also touched on the fact that the standard of living for Japan’s middle class was now showing a downward trend, stressing, “We must raise the minimum standard of living for the middle class. That is one big policy difference between ourselves and the current government.”
With regard to proposed national security legislation, Okada stated that under its peace Constitution, Japan had not up until now engaged in the use of force overseas. He criticized the Abe administration’s way of thinking as being one “that would drastically alter the conduct that has been the norm for Japan during the 70 years since WWII. But there has not been a detailed explanation of this.” Okada went on to comment about the SDF’s provision of logistic support to other countries’ armies, saying that the current government’s opinion is that “this is acceptable provided that chronologically speaking combat is not currently taking place, so to take that to an extreme, it would be acceptable even if for example combat had taken place the day before. We believe that this would be far too close to the battlefield, and since it would be close both chronologically and physically, we are calling for it to be changed.”
Okada also expressed grave concerns regarding exercising the right to collective self-defence, saying, “The government of Japan has historically stated that the use of the right to collective self-defence is a violation of the Constitution. To permit it is to drastically change the interpretation of the Constitution.” He went on to state that during the Diet debate from May onwards, he would “like to engage in discussions to enable the public to understand this, the biggest issue during the latter half of the Diet session. This is a complex subject, and currently the public do not understand it.”
Following this, the assembled diplomats asked questions regarding such issues as climate change and policies for correcting disparities and lively discussions took place. The moderator for the meeting was International Department Vice Director-General Junya Ogawa, and it was also attended by Executive Office Director-General Yosuke Kondo and International Department Vice Directors-General Michihiro Ishibashi and Emi Kaneko for the DPJ.
Handouts of President Okada was distributed as below（PDF）.
|
|
|
 |
|
