DPJ adds growth strategy to election manifesto following criticism+

TOKYO, Aug. 11 Kyodo -
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan on Tuesday unveiled a revised
version of its campaign platform that includes a growth strategy centering on
domestic demand, following criticism that its original failed to address this
and other issues.

The DPJ revised the wording in its platform about concluding a free trade
agreement with the United States by dropping the word ''conclusion'' and adding
the phrase ''the promotion of negotiations,'' given a potential backlash from
domestic farmers.
Masayuki Naoshima, the DPJ's policy chief, said the party recognizes that
eventual conclusions of such agreements are ''absolutely necessary'' and would
also help boost the nation's self-sufficiency ratio of its food supply.
''But our basic stance is to place greater importance on (domestic) farming,''
he said.
The revisions came after the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic
Party attacked the DPJ over what it saw as shortcomings in the opposition's
campaign platform, originally unveiled on July 27, for the Aug. 30 general
election.
Naoshima insisted that these revisions are not meant to change its policies but
to describe more carefully the policies it has already put together.
The LDP-led coalition has criticized the DPJ's moves to revise its campaign
platform as yet another example of flip-flops by the leading opposition party.
DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama has been particularly under fire for having
repeatedly changed his position on the contentious antiterrorism mission in the
Indian Ocean by the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The party had opposed bills for extending the mission in parliament, but
Hatoyama announced in mid-July that the party would continue the mission for
the time being if it wins power.
He then met fierce criticism from the Social Democratic Party, the DPJ's
opposition ally that has protested against the overseas dispatch of SDF troops,
and said a couple of weeks later that the DPJ would not extend the mission once
it expires next January.
But the party did not include Hatoyama's decision in the revised platform
unveiled Tuesday.
''The mission is a promise between (Japanese and U.S.) governments and we don't
think we can end it so readily,'' Naoshima said. ''We will decide what to do in
the course of building relations with the United States.''
To help couples who want children and arrest the nation's declining birthrate,
the DPJ also added to its manifesto plans to consider applying medical
insurance to the kinds of fertility treatment seen as effective.
Under the newest manifesto, the DPJ pledges to pursue economic growth by
boosting domestic demand through an increase in disposable income -- a
departure from the nation's long reliance on exports for its growth.
Household disposable income would be increased by implementing the party's
major economic proposals, such as monthly child allowances and the scrapping of
expressway tolls, the revised manifesto says.
A DPJ-led government would also help domestic industry grow by promoting the
development of cutting-edge and environmental technologies, and would create
jobs by expanding agriculture, health care and care for the elderly.
The revised manifesto says the DPJ will seek to promote liberalization of trade
and investment by promoting negotiations over an FTA with the United States --
not by concluding such an accord, as was originally proposed.
In so doing, it says, the party would ensure that food safety, the promotion of
the domestic farm industry and efforts to boost food self-sufficiency would not
be compromised.
The LDP attacked the DPJ's original manifesto, saying that such an accord would
hit the farm industry hard by causing massive imports of farm products.
The DPJ also revised its policies concerning the decentralization of power at
the request of the National Governors' Association. It now promises to create
through legislation a consultative panel between the central and local
governments to discuss how to implement the policy.
Naoshima said that the party has included the pledge in its annual collections
of policies for fiscal 2009 and that it did not find it necessary to put it in
the manifesto, which he believes should be designed for voters.
==Kyodo