EDITORIAL: DPJ's election setback

If it doesn't turn things around pretty soon, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan will have little chance of reversing its sagging political fortunes.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his party should pay close attention to the seriousness of this situation.

The gubernatorial election held Sunday in Nagasaki Prefecture was seen as a prelude to the Upper House poll this summer. The candidate endorsed by the DPJ and its two coalition partners was a former farm ministry bureaucrat. He was defeated soundly by a former vice governor backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito.

Nagasaki Prefecture is supposed to be a DPJ stronghold. In last year's Lower House election, DPJ candidates won in all four single-seat districts in the prefecture. The two Upper House lawmakers from the prefecture also belong to the party.

Although it was not a national election and there were gaps in the candidates' political skills and name recognition, the outcome threw into sharp relief the DPJ's weakening political momentum.

The political funds scandals involving Hatoyama and DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa very likely affected the results. Hatoyama told reporters that the poll was "influenced by the problems of politics and money."

In the mayoral election in Machida, Tokyo, held on the same day, the ruling party candidate lost to the incumbent, backed by the LDP and New Komeito. In this area, the DPJ candidates made brilliant showings in both the Tokyo metropolitan assembly and the Lower House elections last year. The mayoral race provided additional evidence of wilting voter support for the DPJ.

Meanwhile, the Hatoyama Cabinet's approval ratings keep sinking. In the latest Asahi Shimbun poll, conducted last weekend, the support rate fell below 40 percent for the first time since the DPJ-led government took office last September.

The Hatoyama government must confront the fact that it is losing popular support and start making serious efforts to put itself back on track.

It must start by tackling the money scandals. Ozawa has yet to agree to explain his side of the story to the Diet. The DPJ has refused to discuss an opposition-sponsored Diet resolution demanding the resignation of Tomohiro Ishikawa, an indicted Lower House lawmaker and former aide to Ozawa.

The DPJ must make sure that Ozawa will testify before the Diet as an unsworn witness while allowing the resolution to come to a vote. That's the least it must do to fulfill its political responsibility.

The DPJ should also advance the debate on radical revisions to the Political Fund Control Law while Diet deliberations on the budget bill are being held. The revisions will make lawmakers more responsible for supervising management of their political funds and ban political donations by companies and other organizations.

Secondly, the DPJ should pay more serious attention to the urgent demands of local communities.

Criticism about the money scandals of DPJ politicians was not the only message delivered by voters in Nagasaki. Rather, the biggest issue was how to rebuild the local communities that have been battered by continued population outflows.

The election outcomes might have been different if residents of Nagasaki Prefecture felt they are better off now than they were before the change of government five months ago.

What the DPJ has done, however, reeks of bare-knuckle politics of patronage. The party has tried to win over industry organizations that have supported the LDP by using its powers as the ruling party. We don't think this approach has helped the party win the support of local communities.

The LDP, on the other hand, has been emboldened by the electoral victories to ratchet up its confrontational stance and boycott a session of the Lower House Budget Committee. We have to say that the LDP is also misreading the voters' message.

What Japanese voters are yearning for is an exhaustive debate on policies that affect people's livelihoods. If the LDP doesn't understand this, it is unlikely to regain momentum by the summer election.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 23