People say that members of municipal assemblies should engage in locality-centered everyday affairs and residents’ desperate needs rather than talking about the state and international affairs. But in the local elections this year the electorate must think over the state’s politics, because we see the state’s level politics has never linked to people’s everyday life so directly as ever today.
LET’S DISCUSS STATE’S POLITICS DURING LOCAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS!
The first round of local elections is to start March 23 with governors’ elections across the country, lasting until April 23, when mayors of cities, towns and villages as well as local assembly members will be elected.
Voters cannot remain calm
As the elections approaches, those seeking for democracy feel strong uneasiness: until the end of last year many people had waged protest actions, being indignant, because the Kishida government had held state’s funeral for former prime minister Abe Shinzo under duress and disclosure had been made that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were keeping dirty connections with the Unification Church. Thus, the administration had dropped its approval rating severely.
But today civic movements are quiet; last December the government approved revisions for the three documents on national security in the Cabinet’s meeting without debates in the Diet. And then it proposed doubling the amount of military budget.
For this purpose, the Kishida government is preparing for financial sources: firstly, to use the tax money to be spent on assisting the victims of the 2011 Earthquakes which hit the northeast region of the country, and, secondly, to reduce budgets for public services in a context to review the expenditure outline.
Amid the political confusion the government has fixed policies to operate existing nuclear power plants for longer than 60 years and to build new ones. Nevertheless, protesting voices are low. They are raised only by a small number of groups.
It is a year since the military interference to Ukraine by Russia began. Many have been killed there, but here in Japan ‘contingency around Taiwan’ is discussed seriously and a social mood is fomented that ‘a military affair should be dealt with a military means, so deterrence is necessary’. Many of the moderate and the left are discouraged under the circumstances.
What the Ukrainian reality tells us is ‘when a war starts, it is hard to stop it’ and ‘deterrence means an infinite arms race and it is people that are victimized; they are killed and robbed of their livelihoods’.
For this reason, we need raise loud voices. In 2015 when we opposed the enactment of national security laws, the slogan was ‘Don’t make laws, ignoring people’s objection!’.
The Japanese government maximally prioritized military rationale during World War II in order to fulfill the missions, taking advantage of school education and armed forces to organize the Japanese people on the basis of nationalism. The Constitution of Japan was formulated, learning lessons from the war. That is why it has a crucial essence that does not allow the nationalism-based integration of people.
State’s politics penetrates deep into municipal governance
Military expansion and bigger spending destroy peace and people’s livelihoods of the country. Let’s make our voice strong! We, members of the New Socialist Party and our supporters, denounce the military build-up and growing budget.
The state’s level politics has never penetrated so deep into local politics and impacted so hard on people’s living as we see today. We are exasperated by huge military expansion, tax surges, deterioration of public services, advancement of nuclear power generation, suspension of official aids to cope with the pandemic and a series of polices adopted by municipal governments as a result of the connections with the Unification Church, ‘national integration based on a paternalist family unit’.
統一自治体選が３月23日の道府県知事選を皮切りにスタートし、４月23日の一般市町村首長・議員選まで続く。
「静か」でよいのか
そうした中、民主主義を求める人々は、強い違和感を持っている。昨年末までは、安倍国葬や自民党と旧統一教会の癒着に多くの国民が怒り、異議を唱え、岸田政権の支持率も大きく落ち込んだ。
ところが、新「安保３文書」が国民的議論はおろか国会審議さえ経ずに閣議のみで「決定」され、軍事費の２倍増が提案されている。
その財源として、東日本大震災の被災者支援のためにある震災復興税が流用され、次は歳出改革と称して社会保障費の削減が俎上に上ってくる。
どさくさ紛れに原発の60年超運転や新増設まで打ち出された。にもかかわらず、世論は意外なほど静かで、軍拡と増税反対の声をあげているのは少数だ。
ロシアによるウクライナ侵攻から１年、犠牲者が増え続けても、「台湾有事」がまことしやかに語られ、「軍事には軍事。抑止力が必要」といった世論が作られる中で、たじろいでいる「中道」や「左派」も多い。
しかし、ウクライナの現実が教えているものは、「戦争は始めれば簡単にはやめられない」こと、「抑止力とは際限のない軍拡競争であり、その犠牲になって殺されるのも生活を奪われるのも国民だ」という事実である。
だからこそ、我々は堂々と声を上げる必要がある。安保法反対運動でみんなが叫んだスローガンは「勝手に決めるな！」であった。
先の大戦で、戦争遂行のために最大限に優先されたのが軍事的合理性であり、国民統合のために教育と軍隊が使われた。その反省から生まれた憲法は、そのような国家統合を許さない本質を持つ。
“地続き”を実感
軍拡と軍事費増のためにこの国の平和と人々の暮らしを破壊することは許さないと、新社会党候補者・支持者は大きな声を上げていこう。
大軍拡・増税・社会保障改悪や原発推進の他にも、コロナ禍対策の打ち切り、旧統一教会が地方政治に持ち込んだ「家族中心の国家統合」を目指す政策など、今ほど国政と地方政治・暮らしが地続きだと実感させられる時代はないからだ。
英訳版↓
No. 1300 Local Election Campaign Has Begun
People say that members of municipal assemblies should engage in locality-centered everyday affairs and residents’ desperate needs rather than talking about the state and international affairs. But in the local elections this year the electorate must think over the state’s politics, because we see the state’s level politics has never linked to people’s everyday life so directly as ever today.
LET’S DISCUSS STATE’S POLITICS DURING LOCAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS!
The first round of local elections is to start March 23 with governors’ elections across the country, lasting until April 23, when mayors of cities, towns and villages as well as local assembly members will be elected.
Voters cannot remain calm
As the elections approaches, those seeking for democracy feel strong uneasiness: until the end of last year many people had waged protest actions, being indignant, because the Kishida government had held state’s funeral for former prime minister Abe Shinzo under duress and disclosure had been made that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were keeping dirty connections with the Unification Church. Thus, the administration had dropped its approval rating severely.
But today civic movements are quiet; last December the government approved revisions for the three documents on national security in the Cabinet’s meeting without debates in the Diet. And then it proposed doubling the amount of military budget.
For this purpose, the Kishida government is preparing for financial sources: firstly, to use the tax money to be spent on assisting the victims of the 2011 Earthquakes which hit the northeast region of the country, and, secondly, to reduce budgets for public services in a context to review the expenditure outline.
Amid the political confusion the government has fixed policies to operate existing nuclear power plants for longer than 60 years and to build new ones. Nevertheless, protesting voices are low. They are raised only by a small number of groups.
It is a year since the military interference to Ukraine by Russia began. Many have been killed there, but here in Japan ‘contingency around Taiwan’ is discussed seriously and a social mood is fomented that ‘a military affair should be dealt with a military means, so deterrence is necessary’. Many of the moderate and the left are discouraged under the circumstances.
What the Ukrainian reality tells us is ‘when a war starts, it is hard to stop it’ and ‘deterrence means an infinite arms race and it is people that are victimized; they are killed and robbed of their livelihoods’.
For this reason, we need raise loud voices. In 2015 when we opposed the enactment of national security laws, the slogan was ‘Don’t make laws, ignoring people’s objection!’.
The Japanese government maximally prioritized military rationale during World War II in order to fulfill the missions, taking advantage of school education and armed forces to organize the Japanese people on the basis of nationalism. The Constitution of Japan was formulated, learning lessons from the war. That is why it has a crucial essence that does not allow the nationalism-based integration of people.
State’s politics penetrates deep into municipal governance
Military expansion and bigger spending destroy peace and people’s livelihoods of the country. Let’s make our voice strong! We, members of the New Socialist Party and our supporters, denounce the military build-up and growing budget.
The state’s level politics has never penetrated so deep into local politics and impacted so hard on people’s living as we see today. We are exasperated by huge military expansion, tax surges, deterioration of public services, advancement of nuclear power generation, suspension of official aids to cope with the pandemic and a series of polices adopted by municipal governments as a result of the connections with the Unification Church, ‘national integration based on a paternalist family unit’.
March 22, 2023