EDITORIAL: LDP chief should respond to Noda's proposal for policy talks

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda came under intense questioning in the Diet on Sept. 14 by Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki.

As leader of the main opposition party, Tanigaki opened the questioning on government policy. It was the first Diet session to allow opposition party representatives to question Noda since he took office.

There were hopes that the recent change of prime minister might take the edge off the confrontation between the ruling and opposition camps.

Noda, who has pledged to focus on convincing opponents, is quite different from his predecessor, Naoto Kan, who was inclined to argue down political enemies.

But the way Tanigaki railed against the Noda administration dashed such hopes.

Some of Tanigaki's criticisms of the administration and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan were reasonable.

The LDP chief, for instance, rightfully criticized the DPJ's election manifesto.

The DPJ put all kinds of "pipe dreams and unworkable ideas" into the manifesto, Tanigaki said. He added that the DPJ crafted its campaign platform simply by putting together various nice-sounding proposals without examining their feasibility.

"It is no wonder that (the manifesto) has little chance of being realized," Tanigaki said.

Tanigaki is correct. There should no longer be any doubt about the impracticality of the DPJ's plans to finance policy measures in its manifesto.

Tanigaki also denounced the ruling camp for allotting only four days to the extraordinary Diet session while ignoring the opposition demand that the budget committees be convened.

"We strongly protest (the decision)," Tanigaki said. (The ruling camp has) "its priorities wrong as it is calling only for policy talks with the opposition parties outside the Diet while cutting short policy debate on the floor."

He is right. Noda didn't offer a convincing explanation about the extremely brief session when he said the government wanted to "devote all its efforts to working out a third supplementary budget" for the current fiscal year.

We also repeat our call for an extension of the Diet session, but we also have some advice for Tanigaki.

Tanigaki has voiced unwillingness to agree to Noda's proposal to hold bipartisan policy talks, citing the ruling party's refusal to convene the budget committees as the reason. If the DPJ really wants to work together with the LDP in dealing with policy challenges other than those related to reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake, he argued, the party should develop its policy platform. What does he mean?

He has good reason to be leery of the DPJ, which has yet to build solid consensus among members on many key issues.

But Noda has proposed talks over plans to rebuild disaster-hit areas, integrated tax and social security reform and measures to stoke economic growth. These are all policy challenges that must be tackled immediately for the benefit of this nation. They do not represent efforts to promote the DPJ's policy agenda.

The LDP would be better off trying to get the ruling party to accept its demands through negotiations.

By doing so, the party could demonstrate its ability to do more than simply criticize the government by leading constructive policy debate.

It is easy to see why Tanigaki is persistently demanding an early dissolution of the Lower House for a snap election.

He cannot disregard calls for political maneuvering to put pressure on Noda into calling an election from party members who lost their Diet seats in the last election and party lawmakers longing to crawl back to power.

But what many voters are asking for now is not an election, but the rebooting of the political process that has been frozen amid partisan confrontation.

Both the ruling and opposition parties should now show political flexibility by deciding whether to cooperate on an issue-by-issue basis and making compromises where possible.

Instead of being preoccupied with partisan bickering, both camps should seek to find common ground through conversation. We hope both sides will act like adults and adopt a sincere and gentlemanly approach to politics.

Because Tanigaki is a mature politician, we believe he can lead the way.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 15