EDITORIAL: Diet session opens

This year's regular Diet session was convened Monday.

During last year's extraordinary session in autumn, when lawmakers called for "mature" policy debate, there were hardly any serious, in-depth discussions on policy issues amid a bitter partisan confrontation. Many important bills were shelved without even being considered.

Undoubtedly, much of the blame should fall on the government and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which committed a series of serious policy mistakes that deserved to criticism, including the disastrous diplomatic handling of the collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast Guard vessels near the disputed Senkaku Islands.

But the Diet is a forum for policy debate and consensus building for the sake of the people. Both the ruling and opposition parties need to remind themselves of their heavy responsibility to push the nation's policy-making forward.

This regular session will consider the fiscal 2011 budget and related bills, and lawmakers should hold a serious policy debate from the perspective of the future of this nation and society.

Long hours of deliberations will not lead to in-depth discussions if Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his ministers keep responding to opposition questions by simply mouthing the official line or giving noncommittal answers.

Kan has cited integrated tax and social security reform and Japan's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement as the two key policy challenges for this year. He cannot afford to reply evasively to questions about these two issues before June, when the administration is expected to announce its plans to tackle these challenges.

In the divided Diet, the opposition camp, which controls the Upper House, has the power to block the government-ruling party's policy initiatives.

But the opposition parties must not forget they also have a large share of the responsibility--especially the Liberal Democratic Party, the No. 1 opposition party--for the nation's policymaking commensurate with their power.

In a party convention Sunday, LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki declared that he will press the DPJ-led government to dissolve the Lower House for a snap election this year. Tanigaki, however, also said the LDP will not try to disrupt Diet deliberations without good reason.

His remarks indicate he is actually struggling to figure out a political strategy for his party that strikes a good balance between being "combative" and "responsible."

The LDP made strong showings in last year's Upper House election and many of the ensuing local polls.

But many people who voted for the LDP in these elections were apparently disillusioned with the DPJ-led government, rather than supportive of the LDP.

It would be premature for the LDP to conclude that voters are beginning to consider giving the opposition party a mandate to govern the nation again.

If the LDP wants to return to power, it should first offer alternatives to the DPJ's policy proposals at the Diet and seek public support to its agenda through parliamentary debate.

What the LDP must not do is take the budget-related bills hostage to force the Kan administration to choose between a general election and the Cabinet's resignation. It would do little to help the LDP's long-term efforts to regain voters' trust if the party becomes preoccupied with pursuing such a confrontational strategy focused on winning the partisan battle.

The best strategy, albeit a bit roundabout, for the LDP to ensure its political revival is to fulfill its responsibility by making necessary compromises for crucial agreements while competing with the ruling party.

As for the scandal involving former DPJ head Ichiro Ozawa, who will soon be indicted over questionable political funds reports, the DPJ leadership has the responsibility to take actions that clearly express its position on the issue, such as summoning Ozawa to the Diet as a sworn witness or urging him to leave the party.

But the Ozawa issue should not be allowed to prevent the Diet from having serious, in-depth debate on key policy issues.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 24