EDITORIAL: ‘Sontaku’ boast underscores lax discipline under Abe government

A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker recently used the highly stigmatized term “sontaku” in talking publicly about his efforts to upgrade a local road construction project.

The remarks by vice land minister Ichiro Tsukada about sontaku-based pork-barreling concerning the public works project to build a new road connecting the Honshu main island and the Kyushu southern island are shocking and outrageous.

They have only reinforced the suspicion among the public that the now-notorious sontaku practice to accommodate the assumed wishes and intentions of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration is undermining the fairness of the administrative process.

This suspicion was raised by the political scandals involving Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Educational Institution, two school operators directly or indirectly linked to Abe, and has been deepened by investigations into the allegations.

In an April 1 speech to support a ruling party-backed candidate in the Fukuoka gubernatorial election, Tsukada bragged about how he upgraded the road construction project in southwestern Japan as an unrequested favor to Abe and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso.

The revived Shimonoseki-Kita-Kyushu Road project, whose feasibility study will now be entirely undertaken by the central government, will link Abe’s home base in Yamaguchi Prefecture with Aso’s stronghold in Kyushu via the Kanmon Straits between the two islands.

Referring in his speech to his recent conversation with Hiromi Yoshida, secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus, who visited his office, Tsukada quoted Yoshida as saying, “Tsukada, as you are well aware, this is a project for the constituencies of the prime minister and the deputy prime minister.”

Tsukada said he responded by saying, “I get the message.” He then added, “I will practice sontaku as neither the prime minister nor the deputy prime minister can say such things (about the project).”

Then, Tsukada talked about his successful bid to have the cost of the feasibility study for the project fully financed by the state budget starting in fiscal 2019 as if it were his great political achievement.

On April 2, Tsukada retracted his remarks, saying in a statement, “As my series of remarks were not true, I retract them and apologize.”

In a Lower House Cabinet Committee session on April 3, he claimed that he has never given “special favor” to the project because it concerns the constituencies of the prime minister and the deputy prime minister. He also denied that Yoshida made the remarks he attributed to the Upper House lawmaker.

Even if these claims are true, there is no denying the fact that Tsukada tried to impress voters by speaking about his efforts to grant political favors to their district.

Tsukada’s speech, in which he brazenly repeated the term sontaku, is a complete disgrace to his profession.

If Tsukada has no intention to resign as a vice land minister, Abe should swiftly sack him.

But Abe apparently fails to see the seriousness of the implications of Tsukada’s remarks.

At the Lower House Cabinet Committee meeting on April 3, Abe showed his willingness to let Tsukada off the hook. He said the lawmaker “has already retracted the remarks and apologized,” adding that he should first “sincerely explain himself.”

If he believes that no policy decision based on sontaku should be allowed, Abe has every reason to take a step to hold Tsukada responsible for what he said to demonstrate his stance toward the issue.

Last month, Yusuke Yokobatake, director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, was forced to retract his remarks in responding to a question at the Diet and apologized.

Responding to an opposition lawmaker’s question about the Diet’s role as the watchdog of the Cabinet, Yokobatake sarcastically said, “I don’t think this has become an issue that we need to discuss in angry voices at such a place.”

Cabinet members have the obligation to give sincere and honest answers to questions from Diet members, who are representatives of the people.

A bureaucrat whose job is to support Cabinet members should never be allowed to take a sarcastic tone toward any question from a lawmaker.

But the only disciplinary action taken against Yokobatake was a strong warning from the chairman of the Upper House Budget Committee.

The Abe administration has a history of failing to discipline Cabinet members and bureaucrats for their controversial, unacceptable remarks.

If the administration keeps showing its unwillingness to punish officials for any remarks they may make, the evils of arrogance and lax discipline that have been plaguing the administration will never be cured.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 4