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On June 12, DPJ President Katsuya Okada attended a sit-down demonstration organized by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation. He told demonstrators, “The DPJ believes that ‘We should first prioritize the response to leaks of personal data from the pension system’ [during deliberations in the Committee on Health, Labour and Welfare].” Okada commented on a remark made that same day by Prime Minister Abe, describing the leaks as “a cross-partisan issue”. Okada criticized Abe’s opportunism, stating, “The Prime Minister takes the position that issues like labor legislation and security legislation are “nothing to do with the opposition parties’, but when it suits him he turns round and says that ‘this is a cross-partisan issue’.”
Okada went on to comment on the government proposal for revisions that would weaken the provisions of the Worker Dispatch Law, stressing, “This legislation will have a huge negative impact on Japan’s sustainable economic growth. The situation wherein dispatch workers and others in unstable employment are forced to give up marrying and having children is a significant limitation on Japan achieving sustainable economic growth…It is our job as politicians to create a secure foundation for them to live their daily lives free from anxiety. In order to achieve this there is still much to be debated with regard to this legislation.” Okada also referred to the proposal to exempt white-collar workers from overtime pay, stating, “The proposed labor legislation ranks with the security legislation as one of the main talking points of this Diet session. The DPJ vows to work together with you all to overcome the obstacles we face.”
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