EDITORIAL: DPJ leadership hopefuls should start campaigns now

The Democratic Party of Japan should have apologized to voters for making irresponsible campaign promises long ago. Why has the ruling party been so slow to do so?

Prime Minister Naoto Kan and other top administration officials on July 22 apologized for the DPJ-led government's failure to deliver on many of the promises in its election manifesto.

Kan admitted that the party was "a little too optimistic" about funding the measures. "I would like to offer my apology to the public for (the manifesto's) imperfections," he said.

Nearly two years have passed since the DPJ came to power in a historic regime change.

The DPJ has already formulated two budgets. It is hardly possible that the party did not realize in that process that the promise to finance its proposals by raising 16.8 trillion yen through the elimination of wasteful spending and other measures was grossly unrealistic.

However, the party did not apologize until it came under strong political pressure to do so from the opposition parties, which have blocked the bill to allow the government to issue deficit-financing bonds and left the Kan administration unable to implement the budget. The move came far too late.

It is not that all of the DPJ's campaign promises were misguided policies. Many of them actually pointed in the right direction, such as putting greater importance on the welfare of children.

The problem with the DPJ's half-baked, unworkable manifesto was with its basic attitude toward election promises.

It apparently regarded its election manifesto as a tool to grab power, rather than a document spelling out the key policy goals it would seek to achieve when it took power. That's why it didn't make serious efforts to produce well-thought-out proposals and instead put all kinds of political goodies into the manifesto without paying enough attention to funding.

The party now needs to tackle such questions as whether the childcare allowance program it has introduced is really the best way to promote the well-being of children. If so, what other expenditures should be cut to finance the program?

Reviewing an election manifesto is an arduous task involving selecting really strong policy priorities and identifying really important policy goals.

It has apologized for its failure to carry out its election promises. Now, the DPJ needs to quickly revise its policy agenda.

This is not a job that can be done by the party's current executive team, which is to be replaced soon.

There are concerns that the proposed review could be dropped altogether if a politician arguing that the party should stick to its current manifesto is elected to replace Kan.

On the other hand, victory by a candidate campaigning for rewriting the manifesto would indicate a solid consensus behind revision. That could give an opportunity to increase the unity of the party, which has shown a propensity for internal discord.

If the DPJ chooses this path, it can ill afford to wait patiently for Kan to say when he intends to leave office. The DPJ would do better to start the leadership election debate immediately.

DPJ lawmakers who want to stand for the leadership should announce their candidacies now and put forward clear policy agendas. They should map out their plans for the reconstruction of areas devastated by the March disaster, their ideas for the future course of Japan as a whole and their vision of the country's energy policy, as well as revisions to the party's manifesto. They should also put forward definite proposals for forming the government and schemes for cooperation with the opposition parties.

The party would benefit greatly from serious debate on these issues.

We suggest that other parties try to influence the DPJ leadership race by announcing which of the candidates they would be willing to work with and on what conditions.

The opposition parties have been refusing to cooperate with the DPJ, citing Kan's wrong policies and failed leadership. They will not help the nation simply by sticking to this position.

We hope lawmakers in both camps will engage in forward-looking policy debate instead of spending time and energy on efforts to oust Kan.

-- The Asahi Shimbun, July 23