On June 9, DP President Katsuya Okada held his regular press conference and having once more expressed his resolve to engage in the Upper House election, announced the newly-created election posters.
The posters unveiled consisted of one pre-campaign and two campaign posters. Okada commented on the slogans for the three posters, saying, “’Forward with You’ represents the party’s founding slogan ‘Forward with the People’”, “’Economic Revitalization Begins with People’ signifies the fact that our economic policies are ‘balancing growth with the distribution of wealth’ in other words that economic revitalization that focuses on people is needed. This poster represents the fact that policies that leave people behind, like those of the Abe administration, are of no use.” And “’First, prevent a two-thirds majority [by the ruling parties]’ symbolizes the fact that with the Abe administration thinking of constitutional revision, the minimum requirement for us is to ensure that the conditions for this are not created. It shows our resolution to fight the election by winning one seat at a time.”
In connection with the Upper House election, Okada mentioned the recently announced LDP election platform. The LDP have criticized as “irresponsible” Okada’s comment in the recent Prime Minister’s Question Time that “issuing deficit-covering government bonds is unavoidable in order to enhance social security”. In relation to this Okada stated, “What I mean to say is that administrative reforms must first be properly carried out, and if this proves to be insufficient then we would be forced to issue deficit-covering bonds.” He further stressed that if the two year postponement of consumption tax increases proposed by the DP were to be put in place, three trillion yen would be required to cover the social security budget, and so both the period of time of the DP’s proposed postponement and the size of the sum required were quite clear. He criticized the LDP response, saying, “The LDP is implying that we will just allow debts to pile up, but in fact it is totally unclear as to what they themselves are prepared to do. If they intend to criticize, then they should first make their own intentions clear.”
Okada went on to express concerns regarding the Chief Cabinet Secretary’s expressed intention of travelling to the regions on the campaign trail, saying, “Will this put the crisis management structure of the Prime Minister’s Office at risk?” Okada also urged the government to rethink this in view of the successive incursions by Russian and Chinese naval vessels into the contiguous zone around the Senkaku Islands, saying, “An extremely serious situation, where crisis management is crucial, is occurring. I wonder whether an adequate response can be made with both the Prime Minister and the Chief Cabinet Secretary absenting themselves from the Prime Minister’s Office in order to participate in the election campaign.”
