EDITORIAL: Why so much secrecy?

The Democratic Party of Japan has long maintained that its main political mission is to clean up the rot accumulated by a half-century of near-uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. Yet, we have to question the responses by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano with regard to the key issue of government transparency.

The Hatoyama administration made it clear that it, like successive LDP-led governments, will not disclose details about expenditures from the Cabinet Secretariat's secret fund, such as how much money is spent and for what purposes. The chief Cabinet secretary is allowed to use the fund without disclosing specifics on its use.

"It is not the kind of information that can be fully disclosed to the public," Hatoyama said.

It is, however, the DPJ itself that had criticized the lack of transparency in the accounting of the secret fund and demanded disclosure of information about expenditures.

The annual outlays of some 1.4 billion yen from the fund, or an average of nearly 4 million yen per day, mainly finance activities for collecting information about a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues, according to an official explanation by the government.

But it has been revealed that part of the money was spent for purposes related to efforts for smooth Diet operations, such as giving cash to lawmakers going on an overseas business trip, providing Diet members in both camps with money for buying suits and purchasing tickets to political fund-raising parties.

In this context, it should not be forgotten that a Foreign Ministry official embezzled more than 500 million yen from the fund and bought racehorses and a condominium, among other things.

Such abuse has been going unchecked because use of the money is not subject to disclosure, with no receipts required for expenses claimed.

There are, of course, details that must be kept secret for good reason, such as the names of informants. But there should be a disclosure system similar to the one used for diplomatic documents. The system should require the government to disclose as much information as possible after a certain period. Pressure from such future disclosure is essential for preventing inappropriate use of the secret fund.

The DPJ apparently thought so when in 2001 the party, then in opposition, submitted a bill to the Diet that would have mandated disclosure of information about the fund's expenses. It sought disclosure after 25 years for expenses of a highly confidential nature and 10 years for others.

At that time, too, the DPJ was headed by Hatoyama. In a one-on-one Diet debate with then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Hatoyama demanded "thorough disclosure of information" about the secret fund.

This time, however, Hatoyama has been eschewing the issue. "I won't get involved in the issue in any way. I have totally entrusted my chief Cabinet secretary with handling it," he told reporters.

Hirano, for his part, denied the existence of such a secret fund in his first news conference after his appointment even though he had been briefed on the fund by his LDP predecessor. More than one month later, Hirano finally admitted the existence of the fund. But he made no remarks about measures to enhance transparency in its management. "I will judge the appropriateness of the uses on my own responsibility. I ask for the trust of the public," is all he said.

Taxpayers quite rightly want the Hatoyama government to undertake an exhaustive investigation of how the money was spent under the LDP government and reveal all problematic uses that might be discovered.

The Hatoyama government changed its stance toward the issue the moment it took control of the fund. The government's about-face means the fund will remain cloaked in secrecy as it was under the LDP government.

Hatoyama owes the public a convincing explanation about why the government has changed its policy. We also want to hear his thoughts about basic principles for uses of the fund and disclosure of information concerning ways the money is used.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 7(IHT/Asahi: November 10,2009)