Basic Policies

(Tentative Translation)

The Constitutional Democratic Party will work on the following basic policies from a medium- to long-term perspective in order to realize the basic principles set forth in our Platform and our aims.

Party Platform of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan

1. Basic philosophy

2. Our Goals

A. Democratic politics based on constitutionalism

We will:

• Not allow arbitrary or expedient changes to the constitutional interpretations that lack logical consistency or legal stability.
• Deepen public debate towards the stable succession of the Emperor status and the establishment of a female imperial branch.

• Aim to introduce a quota system in national elections to achieve gender equality in the political field.
• Promote reform of parliament and local councils to improve administrative oversight and policy-making functions.
• Enhance civic education and expand opportunities for people to participate in politics.
• Strive to reform the electoral system in line with the current times, such as the dissolution of merged constituencies for the House of Councilors, and expansion of the age of eligibility for various elections.

B. A free society that respects human rights

• Strengthen protection of the “right to know” from the perspective of the right to access information and freedom of the press, and clarify “the right to privacy” as a basic human right.
• Promote “visualization of interrogations” to prevent false accusations and increase the transparency of the judiciary.
• Abolish the "crime of conspiracy" that violates freedom of thought and beliefs and leads to a surveillance society.

• Introduce a selective marital surname system, eliminate the period of ban on remarriage that exists only for women, and develop a legal system that comprehensively supports women facing difficulties.
• Promote legislation for effective gender equality, such as ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and introducing an “individual reporting system”.
• Review the requirements for assault and intimidation based on the actual situation of sexual violence, and strengthen support for victims.
• Promote reproductive health and rights that respect the right to sexual self-determination.
• Aim to realize a legal system that allows same-sex marriage.
• Work on measures against online discrimination and slander.

C. A symbiotic society that respects diversity and mutual support

• Support diverse actors including NPOs that are responsible for community development and autonomy, and social businesses that use local and social interests as indicators.
• Create a society where everyone can live within the community, by strengthening measures against social isolation and loneliness including for people with disabilities and single-person households; securing space for ‘hikikomori’ or those withdrawn from society and those not attending school; and supporting young people in the areas of employment and family support.
• Aim for a society where no one feels driven to commit suicide.
• Review the current taxation and social security systems based on fixed gender roles, and promote a shift from head-of-household units to individual units.

• Revitalize local communities and create employment through the local production and consumption of energy from renewable sources, energy conservation, and improvement of energy storage technology.
• Not build or expand nuclear power plants, but aim to promptly shut down and decommission all nuclear power plants.
• Establish a new framework toward the suspension of nuclear fuel cycle projects in consultation with relevant local governments, and directly dispose of spent nuclear fuel. Final disposal will be carried out based on scientific knowledge, with the national government’s responsibility clearly defined and safety as the highest priority.
• Strive to secure and develop human resources to achieve the energy transition, and make the utmost efforts to ensure a just transition of employment for workers and to promote affected communities.
• Not allow the restart of nuclear power plants without verification of the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, formulation of effective evacuation plans, and local agreement.

• Strongly promote measures to combat the climate crisis, aiming to achieve a 50% share of power generation from renewable energy by 2030 and carbon neutrality (effectively zero greenhouse gas emissions) by 2050.
• Support capital investment for decarbonization by transitioning from coal-fired power generation, and support efforts to decarbonize the transportation sector through the promotion of electric, hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles.
• Actively promote the conservation of biodiversity and foster understanding of the whole of society.
• Promote global standards of animal protection and welfare, and work on proactive regulations and measures to reduce animal cruelty and the number of lives sacrificed to the economy.
• Aiming for a transition to a recycling-oriented society, we will promote the reduction of emissions into the environment, such as by curbing the use of disposable plastics.

D. An Economy that respects people and promotes wellbeing

• Aim to achieve sustainable economic growth and the revival of a sizeable middle class by creating a decentralized, diversified and domestic demand-driven economy and promoting fair distribution.
• Increase wages to increase personal spending opportunities and power, and establish a positive economic cycle.
• Support the efforts of individuals and companies so that those who wish to newly enter or transfer into jobs in growth fields can do so, and expand vocational education, job training, and employment support for all generations.
• Through dialogue with the market, aim to create a financial environment conducive to sustainable corporate growth and stable asset formation for the people, while normalizing monetary policy that has become fiscal finance through the ‘new phase of monetary easing.’
• Adhere to the principles of the Small and Medium Enterprise Charter and support the productivity improvement of SMEs, the creation of new businesses, entrepreneurship, and business succession.
• Work to strengthen consumer administration and protection, enhance consumer affairs consultations, strengthen support for consumer groups, and consider new mechanisms to prevent and recover from consumer damage.

• Improve food self-sufficiency rates and local production for local consumption.
• Promote the revival and expansion of the income compensation system for individual farmers, and the sixth industrialization of agriculture, forestry and fisheries to improve the income of workers and create employment.
• Support small agriculture, fishing and forestry workers who make up the majority of local agricultural, mountain and fishing villages, urban agriculture, and small-scale farmers, so that they can fulfill their multifaceted functions such as maintaining national land, nature, and biodiversity and passing on culture.
• Foster local leaders by enhancing support for new farmers and successors.
• Aim to establish a system to provide safe and secure food by optimizing food labeling.
• Promote the stable securing of water resources and a healthy water cycle, as well as measures against damage caused by birds and animals.
• Maintain the function of forests through appropriate management, promote a stable supply of timber and the utilization of domestic timber, and prevent illegally logged timber from entering the market.
• Crack down on illegal operations by foreign fishing vessels and promote management of fishing catches, to secure and preserve marine and fishery resources and stabilize fishery management.
• Increase the sustainability of local public transportation, support its workers, and support interregional movement and distribution by various transportation means including road, rail and water.
• Revitalize the real estate and construction markets by making buildings barrier-free, earthquake-resistant, longer-lasting, and more energy efficient.
• Work on the smooth maintenance and management, as well as extension and renewal of service lives of aging social infrastructure such as railways, roads, ports, bridges and waterworks in order to improve safety and disaster preparedness, while being selective and focused in public works projects.
• Maintain and improve the universal postal service.
• Maintain the independence of broadcasting as the basis of democracy, and the autonomy of the subscription fee system to ensure the independence of public broadcasting.

• Support digital-related research and development in all industrial fields, such as Green: environment, energy and infrastructure; Life: medical and nursing care; and Local: regional revitalization and tourism utilizing local resources.
• Expand R & D support and investment tax reductions for universities, research institutes, and private companies, aiming to become the world's top technology nation, while working to secure budgets for basic research and improvement in conditions for researchers.
• Strengthen telecommunications foundations as an information infrastructure, and develop an environment that is accessible to all, aiming for a digital society where no one is left behind. Strengthen cyber security through the promotion of public-private partnerships to achieve safe and secure information management.

E. Sustainable and reliable social security

• Expand “basic services” such as medical care, long-term care, welfare for persons with disabilities, childcare, education, and after-school children's clubs so that everyone can receive the services they need, in response to the declining birthrate and aging society and to create a society where people can live at ease.
• Improve the conditions for workers in care, disability welfare and childcare, and support their career development.
• Strengthen efforts toward zero people having to leave their jobs to provide care.
• Expand the medical and long-term care provision system, making it sustainable and reliable through increased focus and efficiency.
• Enhance the comprehensive community care system through cooperation between medical care, long-term care, and welfare for persons with disabilities.
• Extend healthy life expectancy by improving preventive medicine and rehabilitation, and work to enhance measures against cancer, cardiovascular and intractable diseases.
• Aim to establish a sustainable pension system that can be trusted by people of all generations, including the younger generation.
• Stabilize housing and living conditions by subsidizing rent for rental housing.

• Aim to create a society where indefinite direct employment is in principle possible, and where people can work as full-time employees if they wish,
• Realize equal pay for equal work, and review the worker dispatch system, limiting its scope to truly specialized occupations.
• Aim to achieve zero deaths from overwork and promote education on labor rules by making inter-work intervals (rest hours) mandatory and improving the rate of taking paid leave.
• Expand support for small and medium-sized enterprises and strive to secure a wage level that everyone can live on, substantially raising the minimum wage and eliminating the gender wage gap.
• Thoroughly prohibit all harassment in the workplace including sexual, maternity and power harassment as well as bullying, and strengthen preventive measures.
• Create various opportunities for re-learning (recurrent education system).

• Prioritize the best interests of children with “Children First” policies at the center, such as their rights to express opinions and to self-determine sexuality and way of life.
• Aim for 100% provision of childcare leave benefits in practice, and review the system to enable anyone to take childcare and nursing care leave as needed, to achieve a work-life balance for both men and women.
• Make all children eligible for child allowance, increase the amount and extend the age of payment, and strengthen support for single-parent families, such as by increasing the child support allowance.
• Expand support for pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing, including fertility treatment.
• Work to eliminate waiting lists for nursery schools and after-school children's clubs, ensure high-quality childcare and early childhood education for all children, and make them free of charge.
• Reduce the educational burden on parents and prevent child poverty and its cycle by providing free school lunches at elementary and junior high schools, free high school tuition with no income restrictions, expanding university tuition reductions and exemptions, and significantly expanding study support systems such as benefit-type scholarships.
• Promote small class sizes in compulsory and high school education, and small-group learning that enables attentive education.
• Promote protection and preventive measures for children who have been abused or bullied.
• Support the education of children in need of social care and in special environments, and promote “inclusive education” in which children learn together and appreciate their differences.
• Promote education using ICT as a tool in schools, and support the balance between face-to-face and online lessons.

F. A strong and trustworthy government in times of crisis

• Carry out a fundamental review of the overall taxation system and revive a sizeable middle class, from the perspective of strengthening the income redistribution function and restoring the financial resources procurement function.
• Promote the conversion of personal deductions to tax credits with benefits, and strengthen financial income taxation.
• Aim to achieve fiscal health over the medium to long term by implementing reforms in both expenditure and revenue, such as securing reliable tax revenue sources, allocating budgets in response to changes in administrative demand, and implementing other appropriate measures.
• Strengthen the functions and systems of the Board of Audit, enhance the administrative oversight function of the legislature, increase the transparency of budgets and settlement of accounts including special accounts, and eliminate administrative waste by confirming the usage of taxes.
• Promote the elimination of double taxation of automobile-related taxes, and consider a new tax system that will contribute to reducing both the environmental and overall burden.
• Consider the introduction of a carbon tax while taking into account the burden within the overall green tax system.
• Aim for an international agreement on digital taxation.
• Restore the basic labor rights of civil servants, establish a mechanism to determine working conditions by negotiation, and reform the Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs to ensure fair personnel appointments.
• Promote the digital transformation (DX) of public administration while protecting personal information.

• Review the way administrative documents are recorded and promote the establishment of a mechanism to prevent falsification and concealment, such as expanding the scope of official documents.
• Guarantee the people's right to know by making the operation of information disclosure transparent and simplifying procedures.
• Review the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, and aim for appropriate information management to prevent inappropriate secrecy of information by the government.
• Protect whistleblowers by strengthening the Whistleblower Protection Act.

• Promote structural reform of disaster prevention administration, increase the number of administrative staff involved in disaster prevention measures, and create a network.
• Promote “inclusive disaster prevention” in which people including the elderly and people with disabilities are involved from the stage of evacuation planning and disaster prevention education, to ensure that no one is left behind in the event of a disaster, and measures for vulnerable populations are strengthened.
• Strengthen soft measures against disasters such as dissemination of disaster prevention education and expansion of measures to prevent disaster-related deaths.
• Improve disaster prediction technology and review building regulations in areas where disasters are expected.
• Promote watershed flood control in which all stakeholders work together to prepare for the increased risk of wind and flood damage.
• Expand funds to support rebuilding the lives of disaster victims.
• Examine the state of police administration from the perspective of clearly protecting the lives of the people.

• Carefully promote financial support, psychological care, and measures against harmful rumors that are attentive to the needs of the disaster affected areas and each affected person, and keep records of disasters to provide lessons for the future.
• Promote efforts to lift evacuation orders for areas designated as difficult to return due to the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster.
• Promote the attraction and creation of new industries and the inflow of new human resources to form a vibrant Tohoku.

• Based on the principles of subsidiarity and proximity, implement true decentralization and regional sovereignty reforms that allow regions to exercise their independence and autonomy through transferring authority and financial resources to local governments.
• Review subsidies with strings attached, and restore, evolve and expand lump sum grants.
• Abolish the casino business, which leads to an increase in the number of gambling addicts and disturbs public safety and morals.
• Promote migration and settlement from cities to rural areas by improving the telework environment and tax support measures, and aim for a drastic shift in the concentration of politics, economy, culture, and population.

G. Contribution to global peace and prosperity

• Develop active diplomacy for creating peace based on the international principles of order and law, on the premise of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for basic human rights.
• Resolutely respond to attempts to change the status quo by force.
• Respond appropriately to gray zone situations, by improving the capabilities of the Japan Coast Guard and considering new legislation.
• Enhance our capacity to cope with new areas such as cyber, space, and electromagnetic waves, and formulate basic policies that contribute to order and stability in each area.
• Based on constitutionalism and pacifism, take necessary measures such as abolishing the unconstitutional parts of the security legislation.

• Make all efforts to resolve the abduction, nuclear and missile issues of North Korea (DPRK).
• Do our utmost to resolve the territorial issues of Takeshima and the Northern Territories in accordance with international law.
• Promote multilateral cooperation for a peaceful and safe Asia-Pacific.
• Respecting the people's will of Okinawa, stop construction for the relocation at Henoko where issues such as soft ground have become clear, review the status of the bases in Okinawa, and propose renegotiation of these issues with the United States.
• While maintaining deterrence, reduce the burden related to US military bases and proceed towards revision of the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement.

• Play a leading role in resolving global issues, based upon the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” agreed at the United Nations.
• Uphold the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, and work with people around the world who seek the abolition of nuclear weapons to achieve effective nuclear disarmament and abolition, including through the maintenance and strengthening of the NPT regime.
• Emphasize multilateral and bilateral economic partnerships to maximize overall benefits while protecting national interests.

• Create an environment where everyone, with or without disabilities, can enjoy culture, arts and sports throughout their lives, enriching their individual minds and bodies.
• Protect and foster successors in traditional culture such as crafts, performing arts, and festivals, while promoting and subsidizing diverse fields including film, music, anime, and manga to enrich society.