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On January 24, DPJ President Banri Kaieda spoke to reporters inside the Diet building after Prime Minister Abe had made his policy speech on the first day of the new Diet session.
Kaieda criticized Abe's speech, saying, "He kept repeating 'we can do it if we try, we can do it if we try', and I had the impression that it was a speech with the very strong delusion, that there was only one path that could be taken. In April, consumption tax will be raised. If consumption is to increased then we ought to see a thorough enhancement of social security, but looking at the budget, social security has been cut, for example, separating support services for frail elderly persons from the long-term care insurance provisions, but there were almost no references to such issues as these." Kaieda emphasized, "The Democratic Party of Japan will proceed with debate fairly and squarely in this Diet session,
stressing: 'We will protect lives, employment and livelihoods'"
Touching on Abe's characterization of the Diet session as one for achieving a "positive growth cycle", Kaieda said, "The most important factors in achieving a positive growth cycle are wage increases and the expansion of employment. However, there is a strong likelihood that wage increases will be limited to a number of large corporations, and moreover corporations whose profits have increased due to the weakening yen, so I believe that it will be extremely difficult to achieve a positive growth cycle." He also referred to the fact that Abe had nicknamed the previous Diet session one for "realizing the growth strategy", but that the session had actually turned out to be one in which the Abe-led LDP-Komeito coalition government had run rampant, ignoring the Diet in the discussions over the special secrets protection law, and expressed the opinion that "There is a high possibility that the current session will also go in a completely different direction." Kaieda stated, "This is a marathon Diet session, so it will be necessary to sustain heated debate in the Diet. We will also issue counterproposals to ensure that thorough discussions take place, and make this a Diet session of intense debate."
With regard to his participation in the interpellatory session following the policy speech, Kaieda said "I am going to decide upon the content [of my questions] from now on" and indicated that he would raise issues relating to foreign policy and defence, including relations with China and North Korea.
Regarding the statement issued by the United States Embassy in Tokyo stating that the US was "disappointed" by Prime Minister Abe's visit to Yasukuni Shrine, Kaieda said, "This comment is not limited just to the Ambassador, but represents the US Department of State as a whole. It uses extremely severe terminology, and I would like to thorough question [the Prime Minister] as to whether future diplomacy is really going to be fine."
Kaieda also went on to state that the DPJ would continue to call for debate on the five legislative counterproposals which they had submitted to the Diet in connection with the special secrets protection law that had been passed in the recent Diet session. "If the five proposals were to pass, the current special secrets protection law would become redundant, and so our counterproposals and a bill for the abolition of the special secrets protection law will form a set." He said that the party would follow the progress of the various counterproposals, and "submit the abolition bill at the appropriate time."
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