Editorial
DPJ must lay foundations to transform bureaucratic gov't into legislator-dominated one
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Yukio Hatoyama is set to be elected prime minister at the Diet and form a new administration in mid-September after the party scored a landslide victory in Sunday's House of Representatives election.
After agreeing with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the People's New Party (PNP) to form a coalition government, Hatoyama will set up new organizations such as the National Strategy Bureau, and appoint Cabinet members and top DPJ officials.
The biggest focal point is how to transform a bureaucrat-dominated government into one led by politicians. The success of the administration depends on its start.
The DPJ will hold consultations with the SDP and the PNP over a coalition government. Even though it won 308 of the 480 seats in the Lower House, the party must form a coalition with these two smaller parties because it alone falls short of a majority in the House of Councillors. The DPJ currently forms a parliamentary alliance with the PNP in the Upper House, but the two parties only have a combined 118 seats, still short of a majority in the 242-seat chamber, and need the cooperation of the SDP, which has five seats in the chamber.
The DPJ needs to narrow its differences with the SDP over diplomatic and defense policies while agreeing on the need to rectify gaps between the rich and poor, as well as cope with rural impoverishment, take unemployment countermeasures and rehabilitate social security programs. In particular, differences have already emerged between the two parties over the Maritime Self-Defense Force's mission in the Indian Ocean to refuel U.S. and other military vessels engaged in the war against terror. Other issues inlcude how to handle Japan's three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, not producing and not introducing nuclear weapons. The three parties should at least clarify what they have agreed on and what they haven't.
Questions have been raised about how to revamp the vertically divided administration system and to ensure that legislators lead the government. During the election campaign, the DPJ pledged to appoint at least 100 ruling coalition legislators to government ministries and agencies and abolish a meeting of administrative vice ministers from all ministries and agencies. Unless these measures are effectively implemented, its pledges to transform the government into one led by legislators, to secure financial resources for its policy measures by eliminating the waste of taxpayers' money and to give local governments broader power will be unachievable.
The focus of the DPJ's plan to reorganize government bodies is the composition of a new bureau for national strategy, which will draft the budget under the direct control of the prime minister. The DPJ characterizes it as the "control tower" of the government that would replace the Council of Economic and Fiscal Policy, but has not clarified its details. Even if it is under the direct supervision of the prime minister, the decision-making process will remain unchanged if its secretariat is controlled by bureaucrats on loan from various ministries and agencies. It must be organized in a way legislators can control the bureau.
A council on administrative renewal, which the DPJ has pledged to set up to reduce government spending and review its organizations, will not effectively perform its duties unless it utilizes private think-tanks' methods of evaluating policy measures.
It goes without saying that public servants are required to be politically neutral. It would be wrong to arbitrarily appoint them to certain posts and demand that they be absolutely loyal to politicians in an unfair manner and confront bureaucrats without justifiable reasons. However, the new administration should be careful not to be controlled by bureaucrats rather than worrying about confusion caused by changes in government organizations. The DPJ should consider appointing someone from the private sector as an official secretary to the prime minister.
To achieve what it calls "regional sovereignty," the DPJ should create a system to promote decentralization of power. It is required to quickly work out the structure of a consultative body between national and local governments, which it pledged to set up in its manifesto.
Another question is how and whom Hatoyama will appoint as Cabinet ministers and top party officials. Hatoyama says he will appoint ministers and party officials immediately before and after he is elected prime minister. The public is paying attention to how he will use top officials including acting leader Naoto Kan and Secretary-General Katsuya Okada, as well as other influential members such as Seiji Maehara, Yoshihiko Noda, Yukio Edano, Koichiro Genba, Akira Nagatsuma and Tetsuro Fukuyama. He should also consider naming figures in the private sector as Cabinet ministers.
There is a plan to keep Ichiro Ozawa, who was instrumental in the party's landslide victory in the general election, in the post of the party's top election strategist. Concern has been raised that about 100 legislators who ran in the general election at the request of Ozawa -- known as "Ozawa children" -- may be organized into a faction, leading to a two-tier power structure within the party. However, it is difficult for a behind-the-scenes fixer like the late former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka to control the party, since power is concentrated in the hands of the prime minister as a result of a revision to the electoral system and the strengthening of the power of the prime minister's office. Hatoyama, who is set to become prime minister, will certainly be able to make decisions at his own discretion.
(Mainichi Japan) September 1, 2009