BY KYOHEI MATSUDA AND HARUKO KAGENISHI, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2009/6/26
With its policies criticized as being financially unrealistic, the opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) plans to slash up to 4 trillion yen from the projected funding needed to attain its key programs.
The draft of Minshuto's policy program and funding schedule, which will form the core of its manifesto for the Lower House election, calls for securing between 16 trillion yen and 17 trillion yen in the fourth year after the party takes over the government.
Minshuto's initial plan announced last fall pledged to raise 20 trillion yen that year.
The party also retreated from or scaled down several key programs, such as delaying the unification of separate public pension programs for company employees, civil servants and self-employed people from the fourth year after taking power to the sixth.
The changes are intended to stave off criticism from Prime Minister Taro Aso and the ruling coalition that Minshuto's plans would be financially impossible.
The opposition party also took into account the fact that the Aso administration has already dipped into so-called buried government assets, such as special account reserves, in funding its pump-priming measures.
It had initially planned to use these hidden assets as a key financial source for its policy programs. Minshuto had proposed a special monthly allowance of 26,000 yen to child-rearing families starting in the first year after it takes the reins of government. But now, the party is considering the use of an income ceiling to reduce the required overall payouts of 4.8 trillion yen.
In light of falling oil prices and the need to fight global warming, the party will suspend plans for an immediate abolishment of a "temporary" extra gasoline tax that has been in place for decades.
In addition, Minshuto will likely water down its promise to eliminate all highway tolls except for certain segments of expressways.
The party's target to reduce the number of municipalities to around 300--a key pledge in the 2007 Upper House election--has been omitted from the new program schedule.
Since penning "Nippon Kaizo Keikaku" (Blueprint for a New Japan) in 1993, Ozawa had been calling for abolishing prefectures and creating a two-tier structure of the central government and 300 municipalities. Local governments fiercely opposed this idea.
Minshuto is also planning to include employment programs in its new schedule.
To finance its policy programs, Minshuto said it will secure about 5 trillion yen in the first year after taking over the government and 10 trillion yen each in the second and third years. It said 9.1 trillion yen can be created by rearranging budget items, reforming subsidies to local governments and reducing wasteful spending.
Minshuto's manifesto will be formed around five pillars: eliminating wasteful spending and banning amakudari, the practice of retired bureaucrats landing cushy jobs in industries once under their jurisdiction; providing allowances for child-rearing families and education assistance programs such as eliminating public high school tuitions; reforming the pension and medical systems; restoring regional autonomy; and enhancing global warming countermeasures.(IHT/Asahi: June 26,2009)
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