Yutaka Ito and Takeo Azuma / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Bureaucrats have started to keep the administration of Prime Minister Taro Aso at arm's length while making overtures to the largest opposition party in view of a possible change of administration.
Though Aso, whose approval ratings have plummeted, is desperately trying to recover his popularity with their backing, bureaucrats do not seem willing to cooperate. This situation shows that the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats is definitely changing.
On Saturday, though it was the first day of his winter vacation, Aso had lunch with Administrative Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka and other senior Foreign Ministry officials, and dinner with Administrative Vice Finance Minister Kazuyuki Sugimoto and his subordinates at Tokyo restaurants.
During lunch, Yabunaka described important issues that Japan must address immediately next year, namely, how to build a positive relationship with the administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who will take office on Jan. 20, and how to respond to the situation in Afghanistan, which has reached a crucial stage.
Aso responded positively to Yabunaka and other officials during the meeting.
A senior Foreign Ministry official described this sort of meeting as "extraordinary." It obviously symbolizes Aso's wish to improve his relationship with bureaucrats.
Aso has long insisted that he intends to fully utilize bureaucrats and try to "coexist" with them.
"Bureaucrats are neither my enemies nor my ministers'," Aso said in a policy speech immediately after his inauguration on Sept. 29. "Those who can't utilize bureaucrats aren't fit for the job of managing the government."
In this speech, he tried to emphasize his ability to take charge of the government by emphasizing how this differentiates him from the Democratic Party of Japan, which has the reputation of seeing bureaucrats as its enemy. He also tried to make clear that he has different views from former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa and Yoshimi Watanabe, former state minister in charge of administrative reform, who called for drastic administrative reform under the administrations of former Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.
However, contrary to Aso's hopes, the distance between him and bureaucrats seems to be widening. It was Aso himself who triggered this by appointing Masakatsu Okamoto, former chief of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry's general affairs department, as chief clerical secretary to the prime minister rather than choosing a Finance Ministry official, as is conventional.
"This disgraced the Finance Ministry--the 'ministry of ministries'--and it became the first ministry to move away from the administration," a senior official of a ministry said.
A former cabinet member said that the fiasco over the expected distribution of fixed-amount cash benefits and the abandonment of a plan to raise the tobacco tax were partly caused by the uncooperative attitude of the Finance Ministry.
"The Finance Ministry, which has been drawing up policy plans for the administration of the day, keeps itself at a distance [from the administration]," the former cabinet member said.
The only way for Aso, who is fast losing centripetal force, to reconstruct the administration is to "do more to get his policy measures approved," an aide to the prime minister said.
In this regard, bureaucrats' cooperation is essential.
Aso on Thursday appointed Takaya Imai, former chief of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's general affairs department, as a secretary to the chief cabinet secretary. Imai was a secretary to the prime minister under the Abe administration. It is highly unusual for a former secretary to the prime minister to become a secretary to the chief cabinet secretary.
However, observers say this is also one of the tactics adopted by the Aso administration to compensate for his inability to coordinate opinions between the Prime Minister's Office and government entities.
However, a senior ministry official said, "It's no use presenting new policy ideas," as bureaucrats "see the Prime Minister's Office as being in disorder."
The ruling and opposition parties are expected to lock horns over the fiscal 2008 second supplementary budget and other issues from the beginning of the ordinary Diet session to be convened on Jan. 5.
Ministries and agencies are holding back on presenting new bills to the session.
"They can't repeatedly have bills [passed at the House of Representatives but rejected at the House of Councillors] passed with a second vote at the lower house using the two-thirds majority," an official said.
Taking advantage of the weakness of the Aso administration, which has lost control of ministries and agencies, bureaucrats have started to act for their own entities' interest.
The government's decentralization promotion committee has advised the prime minister that the workforce at the central government's local offices should be reduced by about 35,000, in its proposal on the expected integration and abolition of such entities. But committee members say lawmakers lobbying for related government entities and their bureaucrats are trying to cripple the proposal.
Also, Foreign and Defense Ministry officials are concerned that the situation may affect the nation's diplomacy, defense and other fundamental issues.
"Diplomacy and other fundamental issues won't make headway until after the [next general] election and a new government is in place," a senior government official said. "Also, bureaucrats won't cooperate fully [until then]."
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DPJ eyes overhaul of bureaucracy
The DPJ would place bureaucratic reform at the top of its list of priorities if it takes over the reins of power.
DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa announced his plans for the reform of officialdom during his unopposed campaign for the main opposition party's leadership election in September.
His plans include the appointment of more than 100 Diet lawmakers in government positions, such as senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries.
The party would not follow the LDP's practice of selecting senior vice ministers and other top government officials based on the recommendations of party factions.
"We'll compile an expert team of politicians by entrusting cabinet ministers with the power to appoint officials such as senior vice ministers," a senior official of the party's Policy Research Committee said.
Hard-liners in the party, aiming to "grant politicians control over policy and quell opposition from bureaucrats," say they would not hesitate to swiftly fire bureaucrats that did not toe the line.
The DPJ also plans to put an end to meetings of administrative vice ministers prior to cabinet meetings, in which ministries and agencies iron out differences in opinion over the content of bills.
The party would also abolish the practice of amakudari, in which retired bureaucrats parachute into lucrative positions in industries they previously oversaw.
Central government ministries and agencies are wary of the DPJ's plans.
One senior Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying that it would have been better for the party to keep mum.
With a switch to a DPJ administration in the next lower house poll a distinct possibility, a shift toward treating the DPJ in the same way as a ruling party has begun.
Aso's Cabinet approved the government's draft state budget for fiscal 2009 on Wednesday. The same day, a secretary of a senior DPJ lawmaker received explanatory materials on the budget from a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official who visited one of the Diet members office buildings.
"I had no previous contact with the health ministry," the secretary said, unable to conceal surprise. "It seems as if government offices are also making contingency plans."
More ministries and agencies are sending officials at the level of councillors, rather than those at section chief level, to perform the role of a mouthpiece to DPJ lawmakers.
(Dec. 29, 2008)
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