PROFESSIONAL LUNCHEON
Shizuka Kamei,
Acting Party Leader, The People's New Party

The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation.

Shizuka Kamei is founder and "public face" of Kokumin Shinto (The People's New Party). With only four MPs in the last House of Representatives and four in the current Upper House, PNP has become more influential than its numbers suggest and could be part of a new government after August 30. PNP, together with the Social Democratic Party, have banded with the Democratic Party of Japan to give it control of the Upper House. The smaller parties have undertaken to join a DPJ-led coalition in the Lower House after the election. However, there have been strains since opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama suggested on radio last month a coalition was only necessary until Minshuto won a majority of its own at the next Upper House election.

Kamei, a former head of the Liberal Democratic Party's policy research council was long a senior figure in the governing party but as a Post Office privatization rebel in 2005 he was forced out of the party by Junichiro Koizumi. He formed PNP in August 2005, before Koizumi's snap general election. Despite being targeted by the pro-Koizumi renegade entrepreneur, Takifumi Horie, Kamei won his Hiroshima constituency for a 10th term. PNP is running this time on a platform of revising the LDP's postal privatization plans, big government spending to stimulate the economy, tax cuts and a four-year freeze on a consumption tax increase.

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Sandwich Plate: Fried prawn, avocado, tomato, lettuce & tartar sauce on ciabatta with pickles & salad
Hot Plate: Slow cooked beef short-rib with 5 spice sauce, braised carrots, mashed potato & fresh herbs and seasonal salad.

Shizuka Kamei