A Budget to Kill People?

For some reason the Communist Party is disturbingly gaining momentum in the national political scene in Japan, as it's somehow picking up public support in a few national opinion polls enough to vie with a leg of the coalition government - the Komeito.

Amid the Upper House election in progress, the advance of communists is just as a pain on the neck for the coalition regime as UK's choice of walking out of the European Union. Then, a welcome turn of event fueled the coalition's campaign wagon today, June 26, as a communist panel at an NHK TV debate made a grossly violent statement on Japan's defense outlay.

The JCP's head of Committee on Policy Matters, Yasunori Fujino, was commenting on this year's defense budget having registered 5 trillion when he rudely phrased:

"Our national defense budget, the highest now for the first time, is an outlay to kill people. We ought to spend it to foster people instead...."

Tomomi Inada, Chairman of the LDP's Policy Affairs Research Council, countered his rude language and remarked the defense budget is for the defense of Japan, while Komeito's chairman of policy affairs committee, Noritoshi Ishida strongly urged Fujino to revoke his statement. Fujino adamantly rejected.

Fujino's vulgar language in HNK's primetime TV debate and his attitude throughout the rest of the debate flew fast amid the election drives ongoing nationwide.

The Japan Communist Party was quick to react to public reactions against the party and had Fujino take back his "words", thus:

"I was only presupposing that the ruling government is escalating its position towards spending more for arms and equipment along the line of the security legislation which is in essence a War Act.

"My statement in the TV debate was made without any such presupposition and therefore inappropriate. I hereby withdraw it."

By the way, the opposition coalition with communists inclusive is nothing more than a farce. The Fujino episode came right in time to nail it down for good. (Nathan Shiga)