Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii

       TOKYO -- Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii stressed his concern about the buildup of defense promoted by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a general assembly of the party's delegation of Diet members in the Diet building on Dec. 6.

       "In the case of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he did dangerous things while emanating danger," Shii said. "But the current prime minister is trying to do even more dangerous things without batting an eye. I want to firmly criticize that this is where the major danger lies."

       In the fiscal 2021 supplementary budget bill that the government submitted Dec. 6, the revisions to defense spending were the largest in history, making defense expenditure throughout the 2021 fiscal year exceed 6 trillion yen (about $52.87 billion) for the first time. Shii criticized this as an "unparalleled massive military buildup," adding, "The move toward possessing the capacity to attack enemy bases is well underway, and the move to change (war-renouncing) Article 9 of the Constitution is also gaining momentum. The current administration is trying to nonchalantly enter dangerous territory that the former administrations of Prime Minister Abe and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga could not."

       (Japanese original by Ryuko Tadokoro, Political News Department)

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