STATEMENTS

General Secretary's comments on the 145th session of the Diet

August 13, 1999

Kiyoshi SASAMORI
General Secretary
Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO)

  1. The current session of the Diet was expected to discuss important subjects, including the establishment measures to get out of the long recession, the reform of the social security system such as the medical reform and the pension reform, and the administrative reform such as the central government offices reform and the decentralization. However, the bills by the government and the Liberal Democratic Party have been adopted and approved one after another owing to the cooperation with the Liberal Party and the New Komeito.

    These approved bills are measures of short run and are much far from ones that the people have called for. Moreover, Rengo strongly makes protest against forcing through the controversial bills such as the national flag and anthem bill and the wiretapping bill in the last minutes of the session without sufficient discussions, but only relying on its numeral superiority.

  2. Rengo has organized campaigns, such as sit-in in front of the Diet Building, symposiums, rallies to demand for realizing the following:
  3. economic recovery measures, including a recovering market policy such as an income tax cuts mainly in the low and middle income groups and a drastic expansion of child's allowance
  4. one-million-job creation and the expansion of support for the unemployed
  5. the reform of the pension and medical care
  6. the revision of the dispatched workers low to strengthen the protection of workers' rights
  7. In order to find a way out of employment and life crisis in this term, Rengo has taken a mass movement, repeating meeting of the tripartite employment conference and consultations with parties. The government appropriated budgets for employment-related programmes and urgent employment measures. However, they are insufficient both in quality and quantity. The government regards companies as important as always in adopting tax cuts and social security measures.

    Rengo will strengthen its demand for the promotion of living standards with the wide participation of the people. Moreover, Rengo will call for making up the second supplementary budget in an early stage aiming at one million job creation in order to accelerate the economic recovery and to wipe out the sense of insecurity about employment. Rengo will seek for the integration of political forces that place the people's voice in the center of their policies.

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