The Japanese Communist Party hopes to thwart Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform initiatives, saying they favor big corporations and would destroy small companies and erode job security, JCP leader Kazuo Shii said.
"Koizumi's reforms have created a situation in which the foundation for people to live as human beings is being destroyed," Shii, JCP Executive Committee chairman, said in an interview on the party's platform for the July 11 House of Councilors poll, for which the party has low expectations.
"Take the issue of employment, for example. The prime minister says employment has improved. But the fact is that there is a trend toward reducing full-time workers" and replacing them with part-time and temporary employees, Shii said.