By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal
Japan’s huge Communist Party is on the rise again and stands to become the effective opposition to new conservative Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s attempts to get Japan back onto a sound economic and social footing.
From the Communist Party USA’s People’s World:
International headlines have trumpeted Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s decisive win in Japan’s upper house election July 21. But the election results indicate the potential defeat of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s economic and constitutional agenda. Called “Abenomics” by the Japanese Communist Party, Abe’s plan seeks to make Japan “the most business friendly country in the world” by repealing worker protections and corporate regulations, while reducing corporate taxes and increasing taxes for the general public. In addition, Abe plans to “prime the pump” with nuclear power and a renewed push to build up Japan’s military forces.
The Japanese Communist Party, by gaining five more seats in the upper house in the July 21 vote, is positioned to become the head of the opposition to Abe. The number one opposition party, Democratic Party of Japan, lost 27 seats, continuing its downward slide in the polls.
Media outlets remarked on the JCP’s “impressive gains.” The party now holds 11 seats in the Upper House, nearly doubling its presence from the pre-election six. It won Upper House seats in three areas it hasn’t held in more than a decade: Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. In June, the JCP won 17 seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, catapulting the party to the number three position. The JCP’s newspaper Akahata editorialized, “More and more people have expressed their anxieties and complaints regarding the anti-people policies carried out at both national and local levels” by Abe and the LDP Tokyo governor.
Abenomics stimulus includes exporting nuclear technology, along with increased military spending.
Abe is seeking to change a technical provision of the Constitution, Article 96, which would make it easier for him to amend Article 9. Article 9 says the “Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”
Why is Japan intent on re-arming? Well, once it could rely on the US military to protect the country from Russia, China and North Korea.
With Obama at the helm, that guarantee is becoming increasingly untrustworthy. Every other US ally is now in the same predicament. Re-arm, or make your peace with the Evil Axis.
Japan’s communists will of course block Japanese re-armament, because they are more loyal to Russia, China and North Korea, than they are to their own country.
The more Obama cries peace, the closer the planet edges to military holocaust.
