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On September 30, DPJ President Banri Kaieda participated in a plenary session of the House of Representatives, posing questions regarding Prime Minister Abe’s policy speech.
Firstly, Kaieda expressed his sympathy for those who lost their lives in the recent eruption of Mt. Ontake, this summer’s heavy rains, and the Hiroshima mudslide, offering his condolences to the bereaved families, and hopes for a speedy recovery to all those who had been affected by the disasters.
Following this, (1) Kaieda drew attention to the fact that Prime Minister Abe had not referred to a number of key issues, including the right to collective self-defense and the Worker Dispatching Law, in his policy speech. He criticized the Prime Minister for “taking a stance which denies debate’, and called on Abe to fulfill his accountability obligations.
(2) The DPJ President also referred to alleged associations between a number of female Cabinet members who have joined the Abe Cabinet since the reshuffle and senior members of various socially questionable groups, as well as remarks denigrating the Ainu ethnic minority, and sexist heckling, both carried out by various LDP lawmakers at local and national level. He questioned the Prime Minister on his opinion about the regulation of hate-speech, and proposed that rules and regulations to ban sexual harassment in the Diet be drafted by a cross-partisan group, and an exploratory committee be established in the Diet regarding the introduction of a quota system for female Diet members.
(3) Kaieda also criticized the administration for having “lost sight of the real issue” when promoting “the active role of women”. He stressed that “Extending a helping hand to women who are suffering discrimination and difficulties in their daily lives is what we should really be focusing on,” and went on to propose: “the formation of a concentrated response that would include improving the income of female workers, free study assistance, scholarships, and enhancement of child welfare provisions.”
(4) Kaieda further expressed his disapproval regarding the government’s management of disaster reconstruction following the 2011 quake, stating that, “implementing a flux of public works and delaying recovery efforts in the affected areas is like putting the cart before the horse.” He called for the reconstruction efforts to be accelerated and for the period designated for concentrated reconstruction efforts, due to end in the next fiscal year, to be extended. Kaieda added that the government has obvious motives for pushing ahead with the recommencement of operations at Kyushu Electric’s Sendai nuclear power plant before the accident at Fukushima has been brought under control, and called for a clarification of government responsibility and response regarding the issue.
(5) Kaieda went on to criticize the Abe administration’s policies of ‘growth supremacy’ and ‘prioritizing corporate profits’ as permitting “inequalities to be fixed and expanded for the sake of temporary growth.” He added that the policies, “abandon what should be the government’s greatest responsibility, to establish a balance between growth and distribution and protect people’s lives.” Kaieda urged the government to respond to the worsening state of SME (small and medium-sized business) profits, caused by the sudden depreciation in the value of the yen, which has in turn caused ballooning costs such as increases in the price of gasoline, electricity charges and the price of raw materials.
(6) The real wage index has been consistently showing a negative increase since July when compared to last year. Kaieda commented, “If real wages fall, then it is only natural that people hurry to economize in order to protect their livelihoods, and thus slumping consumption will come as no surprise.” He called for specific policies to ensure wage increases would exceed the increase in inflation.
(7) There are currently more than 19 million irregular workers. Kaieda pointed out that ‘inequalities in wages, working conditions, and application of social insurance have been left unaddressed.” In addition to criticizing the government’s plans to resubmit a legislative proposal to revise the Worker Dispatching Law in a way that would actually worsen labor conditions, Kaieda stated that “the movement toward introducing a zero overtime pay system would reverse the effects of the law to prevent death from overwork that was unanimously enacted in the last Diet session” and urged a rethink.
(8) On the subject of social security, Kaieda called on the government to “ensure that an amount equivalent to 20% of revenues is earmarked to enhance social security provisions in the event that consumption tax is raised to 10%.”
(9) Kaieda also criticized the path taken toward fiscal reconstruction, as well as the administration’s lackluster response to administrative reform.
(10) Kaieda stressed that debate should take place on the DPJ’s proposal for “refundable tax credit”, which the party has put forward as a means of reducing taxpayers’ burdens in the light of further scheduled increases in consumption tax.
(11) Kaieda fiercely criticized Prime Minister Abe’s policy of ‘regional revitalization’, saying that if one goes on the evidence shown by the budgetary requests for fiscal 2015 this seems to be nothing more than “bloated pork-barrel spending” and is nothing but “regional revitalization” carried out by central government without regional sovereignty.
(12) Kaieda moved on to address foreign policy and defense issues, stating that “Prime Minister Abe’s careless remarks and actions with regard to the historical issue have been taken as needless provocations and are being used as part of a strategic campaign to discredit Japan.” He asked Abe to explain what steps were being taken to arrange leadership summits with China, the Republic of Korea and Russia.
(13) There have been delays in North Korea’s issuance of its report on investigations into the abductions of Japanese citizens. Kaieda stated that “The DPJ offers its full support for the government’s actions” and called for as much information as possible to be disclosed to the public.
(14) The government is proposing to shelve discussion of legislation relating to the use of the right to collective self-defense until after next year’s budget has passed the Diet. Kaieda lambasted this strategy, saying, “Debate in the Diet has been postponed, the strictly defensive national security policy, which has been regarded as a defining issue for Japan, hangs by a thread, and the three new conditions for the use of force have no real teeth. These actions of Prime Minister Abe’s are a fundamental negation of constitutional politics.” He called on the Prime Minister to explain why he had decided to delay debate on the legislation relating to collective self-defense until after next April, and why the revision of the Japan-US defense guidelines would in practice be decided prior to this debate.
In his conclusion, Kaieda stated that the DPJ’s position was as follows: (1) to hold firm to the strictly defensive national security policy and uphold the basic philosophy that Japan would not become a military superpower, (2) to put a stop to widening inequalities, and rejuvenate Japan’s broad middle-class, (3) to respect variety and aim for an inclusive society in which everyone has a role to play and a place to work, (4) to make the social security system, in particular pensions, as well as public finances, sustainable, and promote employment opportunities and increased pay for women. In closing, he stressed, “I would like to demonstrate to the Japanese people that there is an alternative to the Abe administration, and I vow to fulfill my responsibilities in this regard.”
Kaieda spoke with reporters following the end of the plenary session, stating, “Prime Minister did not refer at all in his policy speech to important topics, topics which every Japanese citizen wants to know about, and moreover he did not answer a single one of my questions today.” He went on to refer to the DPJ’s strategy for the forthcoming budget committee sessions in both Houses of the Diet, commenting, “Today, I have raised the issues currently facing Japan in a general way, but in the forthcoming budget committee sessions I would like us to carefully examine the details of the government’s responses up to now, particularly on the issue of collective self-defense, clarify the key issues, and engage in concise debate.”
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