EDITORIAL: New policymaking rules

The government has submitted to the Diet two bills aimed at ensuring politicians take the lead in policymaking. The bills would establish new personnel authorities and a new appointment system to support the signature initiative of the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

One is a bill to revise the National Public Service Law. The revision would make it easier for ministers to appoint qualified people, including those in the private sector, to senior posts at their ministries.

Under the new system, ministers would choose from a list of qualified and pre-screened candidates, both in the public and private sectors, for a certain post.

The prime minister and the chief Cabinet secretary would be allowed to decide on key appointments themselves. Administrative vice ministers, top bureaucrats at ministries, could be demoted to lower posts like the director-general of a bureau.

While ministers have the authority over personnel issues, administrative vice ministers traditionally make personnel decisions.

Ministers seldom give orders or instructions concerning personnel matters.

The legislation would radically change the the appointment of senior bureaucrats.

The other bill, designed to establish political control over the policymaking process, envisions a new system for political appointments of aides to the prime minister and other Cabinet members recruited from the private sector.

The leadership of politicians in policymaking and the appointment of the right person for the right job are both basic principles. These two pieces of legislation represent a step forward.

Why is it so important to Japan's democracy for politicians to control policymaking?

Under the previous governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party, collusive ties between special-interest politicians known as "zokugiin" and bureaucrats often foiled the efforts of the prime minister and Cabinet members to promote their policy initiatives.

Under the traditional system, bureaucrats performed roles that should be reserved for politicians, from making policy decisions to laying the groundwork for policy initiatives.

One result of this system was that bureaucrats good at behind-the-scenes maneuvering had a better shot at promotion than colleagues with better policymaking skills.

Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan, which unseated the LDP last year, has been pursuing a different vision for policymaking.

The party has proposed a system based on a clear division of roles and cooperation between politicians and bureaucrats.

Accordingly, bureaucrats should focus on developing policymaking skills and providing workable policy options, while the prime minister and his ministers make policy decisions and create consensus.

Since the regime change, the three top politicians at each of the ministries and agencies, including the ministers, have been active in policymaking and coordination without leaving such tasks entirely to bureaucrats.

Bureaucratic resistance has been weak, apparently because they no longer have political allies to support them.

These are welcome changes.

But some problems have also come to light.

There are cases where the efforts of the top three political appointees to take control of policymaking have gone too far. Some do number-crunching tasks using calculators, while others encroach on bureaucratic work.

Critics also say the current situation could demoralize bureaucrats into simply waiting for instructions from politicians.

Some DPJ politicians have dispirited and intimidated bureaucrats with overbearing behavior, such as DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa's stringent criticism of the Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency.

DPJ lawmakers are naturally inexperienced in working with bureaucrats. But the situation inevitably raises such questions as whether politicians are really making good use of bureaucrats or whether these political appointees are qualified for their jobs.

Even if a well-designed system for political control of policy development is established, whether it works depends on how the prime minister and other Cabinet members use it.

The ability of politicians to use such a system effectively will be tested. Attempts to suppress dissenting opinions and patronage appointments are totally unacceptable.

Measures should be taken to ensure fairness in political appointments. Clear criteria should be established for the qualification screening of candidates and the appointments and dismissals of officials. Clear reasons should be given for any decision to demote an official.

An end to the rule by bureaucrats is welcome. But the rule of politicians without rules is unwelcome.

What is needed is the true rule of law based on public opinion.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 20