Asahi :: Wednesday, June 24, 2009

• Mourning Battle of Okinawa victims (6/24)
  THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
  
  [photo] Mourning Battle of Okinawa victims
  
  People offer prayers Tuesday at the Heiwa no Ishiji (Cornerstone of Peace) monument at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman city's Mabuni, Okinawa Prefecture, on the 64th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. More than 200,000 people died in the conflict, including more than 90,000 civilians. Around 4,500 people took part in a prayer ceremony at the park, where the monument carries the names of many who perished in the hostilities. The names of 123 victims were added to the list this year, bringing the total to 240,856.(IHT/Asahi: June 24,2009)


• LDP asks Miyazaki governor to run (6/24)
  THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
  
  MIYAZAKI--The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has asked Miyazaki Governor Hideo Higashikokubaru to consider running in the Lower House election that must be called by September.
  
  The comedian-turned-politician set a strict condition, telling Makoto Koga, chairman of the LDP's Election Strategy Council, that he would contest a seat if the party lists him as a candidate for the post of LDP president now occupied by Prime Minister Taro Aso.
  
  Higashikokubaru, 51, also requested that decentralization policies compiled by prefectural governors be included in the party's campaign manifesto.
  
  "If they accept my proposal, I will feel the need to take some kind of political action," the governor told reporters after his meeting Tuesday with Koga.(IHT/Asahi: June 24,2009)


• Cabinet opens spending spigots (6/24)
  BY NAOTO INAGAKI, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
  
  The Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday approved basic policies for economic and fiscal reform for 2009 that effectively eliminate a key measure pushed by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in his drive for structural change.
  
  The decision was made in the face of enormous pressure from the ruling coalition, which did not want any shackles to be placed on government spending, especially with a Lower House election on the horizon.
  
  In the 2006 basic policies agreed to by the Koizumi Cabinet, growth in social security expenditures was to be reduced by 1.1 trillion yen over a five-year period.
  
  The government had stuck to a goal of cutting the natural increase in social security spending by 220 billion yen a year, but that promise was effectively thrown out of the window last year during compilation of the fiscal 2009 budget.
  
  In that budget, social security spending was only reduced by 23 billion yen.
  
  This year's basic policies mean the government will not even try to cut social security spending in the fiscal 2010 budget to be compiled by the end of this year.
  
  Aso instructed Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano on Tuesday to set the budget request ceilings for the fiscal 2010 budget by next week.
  
  Not wanting to give the impression that it was giving up on trying to rebuild the central government's finances, ruling coalition officials hoped to include wording in the basic policies for 2009 that said expenditure reform would continue.
  
  However, the social welfare lobby of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party wanted to get rid of the 2006 basic policies altogether.
  
  In the end, this year's basic policies say that the 2006 basic policies will be followed, but additional wording was included that said, "necessary revisions will be made for social security" spending and "budget request ceilings will be set differently than in the last fiscal year."
  
  Moreover, Yosano, who was in charge of putting together the basic policies, also exchanged a memorandum of agreement with LDP Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda and other LDP executives that said the natural increase for social security spending for next fiscal year would be allowed and that efforts would be made to cut expenses in a manner that was not exceedingly burdensome.
  
  Aso made rebuilding the government's fiscal health even more difficult earlier this month at a Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting. He said priority should be placed in the 2009 basic policies on overcoming the current economic crisis by improving the unemployment rate and helping local economies. Aso also pushed to strengthen the social security network by providing support to raise the birthrate and to help in child-rearing. All these goals would require more government spending.
  
  While this year's basic policies will provide the guidelines for the budget request ceilings and will be reflected in the campaign platform of the LDP, it would all go up in smoke if the ruling coalition fails to maintain control of the government after the Lower House election that must be called by September.(IHT/Asahi: June 24,2009)