2016年03月30日

Agreement on Basic Policies

Tentative Translation
March 30, 2016

The Democratic Party

We will contribute to peace and prosperity in the international community by deepening the Japan-U.S. Alliance and achieving mutual coexistence with the Asia-Pacific region. We will pursue a realistic security policy, based on the premises of constitutionalism and an exclusively defense-oriented policy.
We will enact new legislation that will nullify all problematic sections of the security legislation passed in 2015, including unconstitutional sections; and that will be able to cope with the severe environment surrounding Japan.
We will make proactive contributions internationally in non-military sectors, including nuclear weapons abolition, the acceptance of refugees and humanitarian assistance.

We will establish true constitutionalism through broad public participation.
In order to realize the fundamental spirit of the Constitution of Japan, which is “the sovereignty of the people, respect for basic human rights, and pacifism,” we will aim to revise its provisions, such as those relating to regional autonomy, as necessary in response to the changing times.

By reforming regulations that deny new business entries, we will stimulate Japan's economic metabolism with the goal of doubling business startups, and creating sustainable and substantive economic growth.
We will promote free trade through economic partnership agreements (EPAs). However, we will rigorously review the specific content of individual EPAs from the perspective of the national interest, and determine their merits and demerits.
We will enhance assistance for non-material resources in areas such as research and development, human resources, IT and design, in order to increase productivity at small- and medium-sized enterprises, which support the regions.
After strengthening vocational training and safety nets, we will increase the mobility of human resources to growth sectors. We will move ahead with nurturing and gathering together a pool of creative talents, including scientists, artists and entrepreneurs. We will accept the entry of necessary human resources from overseas in a strategic manner.
We will create a society in which working is worthwhile by implementing equal pay for equal work and regulations on long work hours.

We are the party of ordinary people, taxpayers, consumers and workers, and aim for a tolerant society with few inequalities, where people respect diversity, the core of society’s dynamism. We will uphold the basic concept that politics serves the socially disadvantaged.
We will support children and young people and promote gender equality. We will aim for a society in which the population is maintained, and where people can work as regular employees and marry and have children if they wish to.
We will realize a sustainable social security system through prioritization and efficiency, while paying heed to intergenerational fairness.
We will diversify public service actors, including local governments, schools, NPOs, companies and local communities, and create a society in which those actors work in full cooperation with one another.
We will pursue personnel management for civil servants based on skills and performance, while restoring their fundamental labor rights and building a framework for determining working conditions through negotiation. Until civil servants’ fundamental labor rights are restored, we will respect the system of National Personnel Authority Recommendations as a compensatory measure.

In order to have no nuclear power plants operating in the 2030s, we will commit to energy conservation, and will also promote a shift to small-scale dispersed power sources and renewable energies.
We will make clarification of the government’s responsibilities, formulation of responsible evacuation plans, and commencement of the process to select final disposal sites for nuclear waste the preconditions for restarting nuclear power plants.

We will reject vested interests, and will switch from “bureaucracy-centered politics” to “citizen-centered politics.”
We will press ahead with reducing the number of Diet members, as we have promised the people.
We will work to formulate legislation that prohibits political donations by companies and organizations (including prohibiting them from purchasing tickets to fundraising parties) and promotes donations by individuals. Additionally, from the standpoint of enhanced transparency, we will work to formulate legislation for disclosing how Diet members’ mail, communications (telephone, fax, and telegraph), transport, and lodging expense allowances are used, as well as legislation mandating the collation of the income and expenditure statements of political organizations affiliated with Diet members and their publication on the Internet.
Based on the Bill for the Promotion of Fiscal Consolidation, we will commit to reducing wasteful public works projects, implementing administrative reform and other initiatives to ensure that a primary balance surplus is achieved by FY2020.
We will aim to cut the total personnel expenses for national civil servants by 20%, on the premise that we will consult with and obtain the agreement of staff organizations and other groups.
We will make the advancement of self–sacrificing reforms and the enhancement of social security preconditions for raising consumption tax to 10%.

We will do away with the overconcentration of power, financing and people in Tokyo, and realize autonomous regional communities that can become self-reliant through their ingenuity and originality.
We will aim to shift to the doshu system (reorganizing Japan into a number of ‘super-prefectures’ under regional governments) while strengthening municipalities. In doing so, we will respect the choices made by each region.
We will carry out a comprehensive overhaul of regional offices belonging to government agencies, and promote the transfer of personnel to the regions.
We will revise the local government finance system, including the transfer of tax resources and moving to allocation of state subsidies as lump-sum grants, and a review of the regional tax allocation system.