Japan: Communists win record local seats The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, May 5th, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.peg.apc.org/~guardian Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Resulting from the two rounds of nationwide local elections, on April 11 and 25, the Japanese Communist Party now has a total of 4,413 local assembly (municipal government) members. This is the best result the JCP has ever achieved and in terms of the number of local assembly members, the JCP is the leading political party. In the elections for city assemblies the JCP won 1,033 seats, representing an increase of 84 on four years ago. As a result, the JCP has overtaken the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) (ruling party in the national government) which got only 881 seats, 75 less than before. The JCP has won the right in six municipalities to convene the assembly: Komae City, Tokyo; Oi Town, Saitama Prefecture; Heguri Town, Nara Prefecture; Joyo City, Kyoto Prefecture; and Yamashiro Village, Kyoto Prefecture. The JCP has won the right in over 90 municipalities to introduce a Bill. JCP efforts to win seats in local assemblies in which there were no JCP seats proved successful in 115 municipalities. But the JCP lost its seats in 61 cities, towns and villages. In the election for municipal heads, 10 JCP-supported or JCP- recommended candidates were elected. In Kunitachi City, Tokyo, the woman candidate the JCP recommended was victorious. In Sakakita Village, Nagano Prefecture, a former JCP village assembly member was elected village head, and became the 9th municipal head who is a JCP member. The JCP went to the electorate calling for fundamental change in local politics from pro-major developers to establishing local politics based on putting the interests of residents first. "This JCP appeal was warmly welcomed by the people", said a statement by the JCP Central Committee Standing Presidium on the election results. The JCP called for a better nursing system for old people and stressed the great need for ensuring that the system covers everybody who wants nursing care. "This call aroused great interest among the people throughout the country", the CC Standing Presidium statement reported. "The JCP again pledges that it will make every possible effort to realise the public promises it made in the election campaign, to establish politics which give priority to living conditions, welfare and children's needs." The LDP, the Komei Party and others conducted an extraordinary anti-communist campaign, with the distribution of demagogic anti- communist leaflets. The JCP quickly published leaflets to refute them. "In order to achieve the goal of a progressive change in politics, the JCP must see as a new and substantial task the defeat of such anti-communist attacks", said the JCP statement. The statement also pointed to setbacks in some constituencies and mistakes made in the campaign from which lessons must be drawn for the future with a view to making further advances in national and local politics. The Guardian 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. 2010 Australia. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Website: http://www.peg.apc.org/~guardian -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
