National caravan protesting against 'Koizumi structural reform' policy

In March, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) Task Force for Another Japan organized a "cross-country caravan" protesting the Koizumi government's "structural reform" policy of "replacing the big government" with a small one and allowing as many public services as possible to be outsourced to the private sector.

The "Caravan" started on March 17 on eight courses. At the end of the campaign on the western Japan course (Chugoku and Shikoku regions), the caravan joined up with the Tottori Prefectural Federation of Trade Unions (Tottori-roren) to take to the streets for publicity and held discussions, while putting emphasis on making requests at the prefectural government. They also joined with local government officials to issue a call in opposition to the government budget cuts for local governments, which are in difficulty due to the cutbacks on tax allocations to local governments. (Zenroren, April 15, 2006)