Japan's major opposition releases upper house election pledge

Japan's major opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) on Tuesday released its pledge for the upper house election to be held in July, with focuses on energy policies and supporting medium-sized and small companies. The platform said the DPJ will expand the use of renewable energy and popularize technologies on energy-saving, adding the party also aims to achieve the goal of erasing nuclear power in the country by 2030. According to the pledge, the party will make efforts to reduce taxes imposed on the medium-sized and small companies and diversify the country's infrastructure export and energy import. As to the controversial topic of revising Japan's pacifist constitution, the DPJ opposed to amend the Article 96, which stipulates the rules of initiating a revision. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) head by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attempted to revise the Article 96 so as to ease the difficulties in launching the constitution revising initiate. The DPJ's platform also said the party will further deepen the alliance relationship between Japan and the United States and will extend support to accelerating a trilateral free trade talks with South Korea and China. The DPJ, with 86 seats in the chamber, now is the largest party in the 242-seat upper house, only three more than the LDP. The DPJ was defeated by the LDP in the lower house election last December and stepped down from its three-year ruling position. On Sunday, the DPJ also lost the election for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly, in which the party secured only 15 seats, compared with 43 before the election. The LDP and its ruling ally, the New Komeito Party, together got 82 seats in the 127-seat assembly. The local election was seen as the prelude of the upcoming upper house election.