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On September 2, DPJ President Banri Kaieda held his regular press conference.
(1) At the outset, Kaieda spoke about his courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, who was visiting Japan for the first time since taking office as Prime Minister. “I congratulated the Prime Minister for his party becoming the ruling party in India’s general election after persevering for ten years,” said Kaieda. He explained that during the meeting, he noted on the efforts made by the DPJ to deepen Japan-India relations when it was in government. Kaieda said he told the Prime Minister, the DPJ hoped to continue strengthening friendly cooperative relations with India even as an opposition party.
Prime Minister Modi described that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started with two seats but won 282 seats in this year’s general election and became the ruling party, according to Kaieda. The Prime Minister expressed his expectations of the DPJ, saying, “Although you are now an opposition party, I wish your party the best of luck in its endeavor to seize control of the government.” Kaieda said the Prime Minister proposed to promote exchanges and contacts between the DPJ and the BJP.
(2) With regard to the meeting of the DPJ Revitalization Panel held on August 29, Kaieda announced that four teams were established to facilitate the quickest possible implementation of the recommendations enumerated in the Panel’s report submitted on July 25. The teams are: the DPJ Management Review Team; the Review Committee on the DPJ Presidential Election System; the Review Committee for the Promotion of a Gender Equal Party; and the Review Team on the Action Plan for the Unified Local Elections.
(3) With regard to the Cabinet decision on the Framework for Tackling Child Poverty, Kaieda stated, “I have asserted that numerical targets should be included, but such targets were dropped from the Framework. I can’t tell at all that the government is really serious about tackling child poverty.” He said he would articulate and pursue this issue during the extraordinary session of the Diet.
(4) Regarding the incident of an unknown individual’s stabbing of a guide dog of a blind male living in Saitama City, Kaieda said, “The party will discuss whether crimes involving guide dogs and service dogs should be handled as cases of property destruction. We will work to revise any parts of the current legislation which should be revised, if any, and ensure that such incidents are never repeated. I consider an attack against a guide dog the same as an attack against a person with a disability. A severe punishment is needed.”
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