On May 18, at the 8th Central Executive Committee Meeting, RENGO endorsed its main demands on policies for the House of Representatives Election in June. These policies are based on RENGO's "Action Policy" (adopted at the 6th Regular Convention, October 1999) and "Demands and Proposals" (adopted at the 30th Central Committee Meeting, June 1999). RENGO will work for the following nine items for the coming general election.

1. Anchor economic recovery, decrease unemployment, and build a society with a stable standard of living and economy.

(1)	Aggressively promote job creation and social security measures that will stabilize living standards and restore the economy.

(2)	Create local jobs by actively carrying out technological renovations and promoting "Manufacturing" technology to encourage local small to mid-sized businesses and local industry growth.

(3)	Respect children's rights and cooperate on the home, school and regional levels to promote pleasant and wide-ranging education.

(4)	IActively promote cultural, welfare, environmental and other citizen's activities as well as volunteer work.

2. Create an advanced, user-friendly, solid welfare society with national participation.

(1)	Rework the current social security system to the participatory one with a safe public pension system, patient-centered medical care system, reliable nursing care service, through national participation.

(2)	Fortify measures so people can have and care for children without unnecessary anxiety.

(3)	Create a living and job environment that is friendly to the seniors and the disabled.

(4)	Prepare good quality, affordable housing suitable for a lifetime.

3. Encourage the establishment of a vigorous local society that efficiently employs its residents' efforts and an education that emphasizes individual personalities.

(1)	Carry out local finance reforms that radically transfer tax revenue sources to local self-governments, in order to promote region-building by the residents.

(2)	Create local jobs by actively carrying out technological renovations and promoting "Manufacturing" technology to encourage local small to mid-sized businesses and local industry growth.

(3)	Respect children's rights and cooperate on the home, school and regional levels to promote pleasant and wide-ranging education.

(4)	Actively promote cultural, welfare, environmental and other citizen's activities as well as volunteer work.

4. Encourage worker participation and discussion to create stable employment that is rewarding and worthwhile.

(1)	Promote discussion among government-labor-management to lower unemployment, stabilize the job situation and secure employment until the age of 65.

(2)	Legislate the Worker Protection Law which will maintain employment and labor contracts during changes in business structure.

(3)

Support the formation of labor unions and expand labor-management discussions to create fair working standards that include: * Remove employment discrimination based on part-time or full-time status, or one's sexuality. * The correction of differentials in labor conditions * The achievement of a 40 hour-work week

(4)	Intensify vocational skills training so that one may improve their job skills and employability.

(5)	Beef up measures to create workplaces that are easy to work in, healthy, and safe, and avoid overburdening workers with too much stress in order to secure a safe working environment and maintain one's health.

5. Support women's participation in every part of society and the workplace in order to build a gender-equal society.

(1)	Revise the existing Equal Employment Opportunity Law into the Gender-Equal Employment Law in order to bring about effective gender-equality.

(2)	Legislate the "Home and Career Support Law (tentative)" which will enable and encourage parents to take child and paternity leaves.

(3)	Enact a revision of the Civil Law to allow married couples to use separate surnames. Further, revise the Civil Law to legislate that the legal minimum age for marriage is the same for both sexes.

(4)	Create a law that bans violence against women and children. Set up counseling desks and shelters to protect victims.

6. Rethink the standard of living and production activities and work to build an eco-friendly, safe and secure recycling society.

(1)	Reconsider living and production activities: such as reducing waste, recycling materials, reusing components, etc, and promote social, industrial and living standards which are in harmony with environment.

(2)	Fortify environmental measures in industry as well as introducing environmental projects such as recycling.

(3)	Construct an environmental-friendly, integrated transportation system and improve daily routes with input from residents.

(4)	Seek a safe and secure food supply and create agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries which are integrated with environment.

7. Reform the consumption tax to solve tax profits/arrears. Build an income tax system that maintains a progressive structure, and create a fair tax system through comprehensive taxation on total income.

(1)	Conduct consumption tax reform to solve tax profits/arrears by introducing invoice-method and lowering tax exemption limits, while increasing the number of payments.

(2)	Rebuild the income tax system emphasizing income-redistributing function. Likewise, change from personal exemptions (spouse, and other dependent exemptions, etc.) to a tax deduction method, maintain progressive taxation, and so forth.

(3)	Promote taxation on total income including income from assets.

8. Create fair and transparent politics, governmental administration, and justice system with the participation of citizens and residents.

(1)	) Do not allow passage of the Checkoffs Banning Bill which prohibits the checking off of the union dues. It is political intervention against labor unions and a denial of democracy.

(2)	Information disclosure must be thorough in order to advance transparency and the democratization of politics and administration.

(3)	Stimulate decentralization to recast politics and the administration into ones that are easy for citizens and residents to participate in.

(4)	Create a justice system that is easy for the citizens to use, and promote reform of the judiciary system to include citizen participation.

(5)	Build a code of ethics for lawmakers, local assembly members, and government officials.

9. Integrate with the international community and contribute to building a peaceful world.

(1)	Strive to build an international community that will develop world peace and happiness.

(2)	Establish an international community/Asian community where the human rights and stability are secure by improving the standard of living of people in each region focusing on Asia and by promoting ILO's core labor standards.