Japanese Communist Party Chairman Kazuo Shii hopes his party will make a vigorous case against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform drive, prospective tax hikes and moves to amend the pacifist Constitution as it braces for the Sept. 11 Lower House election.
Shii said Wednesday his party will campaign against postal privatization, arguing that many branches will be shut down and deprive ordinary people of convenient financial and life insurance services.
"It would have made sense (for Koizumi) to give up on the postal issue when the (privatization) bills were rejected by the Upper House (on Aug. 8)," Shii said in an interview. "Now that (he) has brought it up again to seek the judgment (of voters), we deem it an important issue and take our stand squarely against it."