EDITORIAL: Kan falters in the Diet

Does the replacement of Yukio Hatoyama with Naoto Kan as prime minister only spell a superficial change for politics? Or does it herald some real change? In which aspects will Kan follow, or not follow, in Hatoyama's footsteps?

We wanted Kan to answer these questions Monday in the Lower House when he faced opposition leaders for the first time as prime minister. But we were not impressed by Kan's performance.

If he is letting the Diet go into recess as scheduled, he has effectively told voters to pass their judgments in the Upper House election next month without providing them any helpful information to go on. This is not good.

Kan has made it amply clear that he is committed to fiscal reconstruction. His administration will give up the plan to pay the full amount promised for the child allowance so that the costs thus saved can be used to improve day-care services and other related purposes. Kan is also calling for the establishment of a supra-partisan "conference to consider restoring fiscal health."

His position represents marked progress from his predecessor's. It also gives voters hope for real change.

Opposition leaders Monday asked Kan to explain his "medium-term fiscal framework" for three-year budget expenditures and mid- to long-term "fiscal management strategy," as well as his "new growth strategy" for the economy. However, Kan merely replied he would elaborate before the end of this month.

As for the issue of raising the consumption tax rate, all Kan said was that he was "prepared to raise the issue within a few days in the party's campaign manifesto." In the absence of specific comments from the prime minister, none of these issues can be discussed in depth.

Regarding the extension of the current Diet session, the way the Democratic Party of Japan dealt with the issue showed the party is still mired in its old, undesirable ways.

Kan should have followed the traditional custom of extending the Diet session after every change of administration for a certain period to secure ample time for budget committee deliberations.

Initially, the DPJ said it would extend the current session by just one day to avoid rescheduling the Upper House election. It also proposed to the opposition camp that one-day budget committee meetings be held in both chambers of the Diet. The extension was not long enough to begin with, but the DPJ withdrew even this proposal Monday.

Having refused to set up even one occasion for debating crucial issues in question-and-answer format, the DPJ has only itself to blame for the criticism it has drawn--that the party is putting its own interests above all, and is hoping to hold the Upper House election before its weaknesses become too apparent to the voting public.

The current Diet session has seen repeated steamrolling of bills. This crude practice is the first thing the Kan administration must forswear.

If Kan can get his supra-partisan deliberative council for fiscal health started, that would be the first step toward realizing thorough debates to let the ruling and opposition camps explore common ground.

We would like to think the possibility is there. Sadakazu Tanigaki, president of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, pointed out Monday the necessity of "supra-partisan debates"--albeit conditional on the DPJ's withdrawal of its campaign manifesto.

Kan responded, "Putting troublesome conditions aside, let's debate anyway." Kan must not do anything to kill that possibility.

In response to the opposition charge that the DPJ's leadership change is merely cosmetic, Kan said, "I would like you to watch closely the real changes we are about to effect."

If Kan meant what he said, it is still not too late to extend the Diet session, even if only a little bit, and get ready for budget committee debates.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 15