EDITORIAL: Politician-led decisions

The extraordinary Diet session convened Monday, a month or so after the new Democratic Party of Japan government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama took office.

So far, its efforts to establish political leadership in policymaking seem to be working. This new approach to policymaking will come under close scrutiny during the Diet session.

The new administration has made a rapid succession of moves to change the direction of policies: scrapping the Yanba Dam project; creating a new child-allowance program; and freezing the supplementary budget formulated by the previous government.

In particular, a radical change in the way budgets are developed symbolizes the shift of policymaking leadership from bureaucrats to politicians.

Bureaucrats have been relegated to supportive, behind-the-scenes roles. Instead, the top parliamentary officials at each ministry--the minister, senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries--have assumed the leading role.

When a disagreement emerges between ministries, the ministers and other politicians concerned hold talks to work it out.

The budget process now involves serious efforts by ministries to slash their budget requests. This would have been unimaginable under the old budgeting system controlled by turf-conscious bureaucrats in which ministries vied with each other for funds.

However, a system for budgeting under political leadership has yet to be solidly established.

Since the new government was inaugurated, the top parliamentary officials at ministries have been hammering out spending plans.

After freezing the execution of the previous government's extra budget, these officials tackled revisions of budget requests for next fiscal year and are now working overtime to prepare the spending blueprint for a formal decision in late December.

It is clear that the number of politicians involved in the process is not enough.

In particular, the national strategy bureau, a new organization envisioned by the DPJ as the headquarters for policymaking under political leadership, is not functioning well.

The body was created as an "office" headed by Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is in charge of national strategy. But it has only two full-time staffers. The aide to the prime minister responsible for national strategy was appointed only last week.

Much needs to be done to ensure this organization will properly perform its expected functions. The number of parliamentary officials should be increased while the body is upgraded to a "bureau." The national government organization law must be revised to give the necessary policy coordination powers to the bureau and expand its staff.

The process of formulating the budget for next fiscal year is shaping up as the first major political test for the new government.

Through this process, the Hatoyama administration needs to send out a clear message about how it intends to realize the DPJ's election promises.

To concentrate on this challenge, the government has decided on a relatively short Diet session until the end of November and apparently plans to limit the number of bills submitted to the session.

Drawing up a spending blueprint by the end of the year should be the immediate policy priority, given the public's anxiety about the job situation and the economy.

If so, it is all the more important for the government to beef up the national strategy task force. It is supposed to act as the headquarters for developing a framework for the fiscal 2010 budget by deciding on such key issues as the amounts of government spending and bonds to be issued.

If the task force remains unable to exert leadership, the budget may end up being formulated without a clear vision.

Strong leadership from the prime minister should be the foundation for policymaking led by politicians.

Even if the system to support the prime minister is still on shaky footing, Hatoyama should avoid giving the people the impression that he is unable to clearly define his Cabinet's policy direction.

Hatoyama's political clout seems to have been undermined by the way he is handling issues like the relocation of the Futenma air base in Okinawa Prefecture and the presidency of Japan Post Holdings Co.

Hatoyama's political leadership will be tested by the Diet session.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 26(IHT/Asahi: October 27,2009)