6-11-05,11:09am

All eight Japanese Communist Party candidates were elected in the June 5 Amagasaki City Assembly election in Hyogo Prefecture, gaining the highest ever share in the assembly.

Widely seen as a preliminary political battle to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election (July 3), the Amagasaki election had 61 candidates contesting for 45 seats, and political parties sent in parliamentarians from Tokyo to the city.

The JCP succeeded in securing its previous eight seats with 24,007 votes, up 1,917 from the number of votes it received in the last year's Upper House proportional representation election. All eleven candidates of the Komei Party were elected in the election of the Komei Secretary General Fuyushiba Tetsuzo's constituency. The Liberal Democratic Party maintained its present four seats. The Social Democratic Party decreased its seats to three from the previous five. The Democratic Party of Japan lost four DP-supported candidates, defending only two DP-member and four DP-backed candidates.

During the campaign, the JCP promised the voters to a review of wasteful public works projects and for policies in the interest of the citizens, making clear that it is different from other parties (LDP, Komei, DP, and SDP) which are seeking to continue with wasteful public projects and special privileges for assembly members.

The JCP tried hard to inform the public that it brought the construction of a wasteful complex to a halt; corrected unfair public projects in favor of a special interest group (Kaido) taking advantage of the past discrimination against a particular section of the population; proposed to cut assembly members' salaries by ten percent; and showed feasibilities of a reduction of national insurance premiums, an expansion of free medical care for children, and subsidies for housing improvement.

The LDP, Komei, DPJ, and SD have promoted wasteful public works projects; caused serious financial difficulties by accepting unfair public projects in favor of Kaido; rejected the JCP-proposed bill for a 10-percent reduction in assembly members' salaries; and forced the citizens to shoulder extra burdens.

The JCP revealed that assembly members of these political parties had treated drinking parties during their official business trips as official affairs by using tax money. The revelation gave rise to public criticism.

Those parties focused on anti-JCP campaigns. Komei, for instance, supported LDP candidates and carried out an anti-communist propaganda campaign calling the JCP a liar. JCP vans, posters, and other goods were damaged or destroyed during the campaign. - Akahata, June 7, 2005