Photo: President Washio (right) submits request to Labor Minister Sakaguchi (left),
on December 21, at the Ministry of Labor.

President Washio and other RENGO leaders visited the Ministry of Labour on December 21 to propose policy demands to Labor Minister Chikara Sakaguchi in regards to national budget drafting for the 2001 fiscal year. The demands listed in the request include implementing projects that would create more than 1.4 million new jobs.
During the meeting, President Washio said "we were supposed to make our request at the government-labor meeting and it is regrettable that we could not. However, we appreciate Labor Minister's efforts to hold a government-labor meeting." He continued, "we would like to think of today's meeting as a halfway point toward resuming the government-labor meetings. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will take charge of people consistently from the cradle to the grave and we look forward to the future activities of the Ministry.

Responding to Washio, Labor Minister Sakaguchi answered, "we want to continue to bring about government-labor meetings. In order to introduce far more aggressive employment measures in the next year (2001), we want to create a meeting place where government, labor, and management can talk to each other openly." Where all opinions coincide toward favoring the restart of the Employment Promotion Council of Government-Labor-Management after the New Year.

The United States conducted a 13th sub-critical nuclear experiment at an underground nuclear testing site in Nevada, on December 15 (Japan time). In response to the test, RENGO Department Head of Organizational Affairs Kiyoshi Igarashi and other members visited the American Embassy with representatives from GENSUIKIN (Japan Congress Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs) and KAKUKIN-KAIGI (National Council for Peace and against Nuclear Weapons) to submit an official protest.

In the statement, RENGO demanded that the United States immediately stop all future nuclear experiments and make sincere efforts toward nuclear disarmament. It said, "citizens of countries who were victims of nuclear bombing can never tolerate the conducting of any nuclear experiments. The United States must stop all nuclear testing and seriously listen to international public opinion that demands the abolition of nuclear weapons."
110 people gathered for a sit-in in front of the US embassy at this time in protest over sub-critical experiments conducted by the United States.