Nippon Ishin Chief Leaves Open Possibility of Joining Ruling Bloc

Tokyo, Sept. 19 (Jiji Press)–Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) leader Hirofumi Yoshimura on Friday left open the possibility of the Japanese opposition party joining the ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito. “We do not exclude the option of joining the coalition,” he said on television. Nippon Ishin co-leader Fumitake Fujita earlier made a similar remark. Citing social security reform and the establishment of the nation’s second capital as Nippon Ishin’s two policy pillars, Yoshimura said that the party will carefully watch the stances of candidates in the LDP’s leadership election scheduled for Oct. 4. The two policy measures were among Nippon Ishin’s pledges for the July election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan’s parliament. At a meeting Friday, Nippon Ishin presented an outline of a draft bill for the establishment of the second capital. The draft bill calls for the transfer of tax sources from the central government and the relocation of some functions of parliament and government agencies and ministries to the second capital, on condition that administrative redundancy is avoided. Yoshimura emphasized that the party is eager to decide a rough direction by the end of this month. “We want to discuss the matter with other opposition parties and the LDP,” he told reporters after the meeting. According to the outline, the second capital would be designated by the country’s prime minister based on a prefectural government’s application. The draft stipulates that the second capital should be an area with a low possibility of being hit by a natural disaster simultaneously with Tokyo, Japan’s capital. Also on Friday, co-leader Fujita handed Nippon Ishin’s proposal for policies on foreigners to Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki. The proposal mainly calls for setting a maximum proportion of foreigners in Japan’s total population. While stopping short of showing a specific figure, the proposal says that the proportion of foreigners should be as low as possible. Referring to examples in Europe, the proposal says that social problems can become evident when the proportion of foreigners surpasses 10 pct. It calls on the government to harshly deal with illegal acts by foreigners, toughen examinations of applications for Japanese citizenship and introduce a system to make the cancellations of naturalization possible. “We will set up appropriate policies on foreigners while taking the party’s proposal into consideration,” the minister said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]