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2013/06/03
Kaieda slams LDP, calls for QT
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On June 3, DPJ President Banri Kaieda held his regular press conference at party headquarters. He criticized comments made on an NHK program by LDP Secretary General Ishiba, claiming that “The DPJ are responsible for the lack of progress on the debate over the ‘0 more, 5 less’ [legislation]”, and that calling for “a reduction in the total number of seats is populism”. Kaieda stated that the comments totally differed from the actual truth and were libellous slander against the stance of faithfully implementing the promise made in Prime Minister’s question time.
Kaieda pointed out, “Since the ‘0 more, 5 less’ legislation was sent to the House of Councillors, there has not even been the slightest of movements from the LDP caucus in the upper house to suggest that proper debate over the legislation be undertaken in the House of Councillors Committee on Rules and Administration. That debate finally took place for the first time last Friday. Therefore the one and only reason for the time delay was that there was absolutely no movement on the part of the LDP to suggest to the DPJ that the issue should be debated.”
Regarding Ishiba’s comments that calls to reduce the total number of Diet seats are “populism”, Kaieda said, “This is a pledge that was made to the Japanese people by agreement between [former] Prime Minister Noda and LDP President Abe in November of last year. They said that they would reduce the total number of Diet seats during this Diet session, but this has not taken place. We have submitted legislation to the Diet, and [such comments] are libellous slander against our stance which is to faithfully implement [the promises made] in the Prime Minister’s Question Time at the end of last year. The LDP themselves said that they would reduce the total number of seats, so they are actually cutting off their noses to spit their faces.” Kaieda urged the LDP to complete the necessary party procedures and submit their own proposal for reducing the total number of seats to the Diet as soon as possible.
Kaieda also pointed out that the LDP had also not yet submitted any kind of reform proposal to the three party working level discussions on social security reform which had finally resumed after strong urging from the DPJ. He said, “There is no way that discussion can take place in the current circumstances, and so the LDP should submit their social security reform proposal to the working level discussion forum for discussion as soon as possible.”
Kaieda then expressed his intention of calling for Prime Minister’s Question Time to be convened on June 12, so that the issues of social security reform and the reduction in the number of Diet seats could be discussed.
Kaieda went on to announce that in view of the fact that the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election would take place in 11 days’ time and the House of Councillors election in 31 days’ time, the DPJ leadership would all be participating in election rallies to promote the DPJ’s policies, starting from June 6. He also revealed that he had launched his own Facebook page in conjunction with this effort, saying, “I myself have written some of the posts, and I hope that many people will take a look.”
Among the questions from reporters, was one referring to Kaieda’s earlier categorization of Abenomics as being a “poisoned arrow” and challenging him to identify the “nature of the poison and the DPJ’s prescription for dealing with it”. Kaieda replied, “I welcome a rise in share prices, but the recent rise was far too abrupt. There is a market saying that the higher the peak is the lower the subsequent trough will be, and prices have risen so suddenly that the rebound will be swift and deep. I feel that the most venomous part of Abenomics’ poison is that it leads to a sudden fall in government bonds, and a rise in the long-term interest rate. This situation has started to reveal itself in the rise of the interest rate on long-term government bonds to 1%, but if government bonds experience a sudden fall in the real sense of the word, the Japanese economy would receive a huge blow from which it would be unable to recover, and so we must find a means of dealing with this. The DPJ’s prescription places emphasis on establishing some degree of clarity regarding the targets for fiscal discipline. We are preparing a private member’s bill which would clarify the responsibility for fiscal discipline.”
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