August 23, 2010Summertime getaway a mere disguise to push for Ozawa to become PM
The reason the get-together between former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and former Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa in Karuizawa -- a summertime resort located a couple of hours from Tokyo -- seemed odd is because it was a performance that was put on with the objective of ousting Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
It was a political spectacle masquerading as a summertime vacation, choreographed immaturely, complete with an exchange of hollow words. What in the world are these people doing?
Photo: Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan (2nd L) and his wife Nobuko (2nd R) walk around his summer house in Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture on August 14, 2010.
They are feeling out the idea of Ozawa running in the Sept. 14 DPJ presidential election. By making it seem as though Ozawa is preparing to run, the Ozawa camp is trying to decipher how those in the pro-Kan camp will act, and how the public will respond.
It has been only 80 days since Hatoyama stepped down from his post of prime minister, apologizing to the public for causing the chaos surrounding the Futenma relocation. In withdrawing from government, he called for a "clean" DPJ and talked Ozawa into giving up his post on the front lines of party leadership. But already, Hatoyama is currying favor with Ozawa by inviting him to his summer house and playing the game of politics. The former prime minister's lack of moral misgivings boggles my mind.
Still, the reason such a performance goes unchallenged is the lackluster state of the Kan administration.
Photo: Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan reads a book at his summer house in Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture on August 14, 2010.
Debates and discussions at least took place during the Hatoyama administration. After the government changed hands from the Liberal Democratic Party to the DPJ last fall, those holding the top three ministerial posts and bureaucrats gave up their days off, debating late into the night to review the budgetary framework that past administrations had set.
Such excitement is now gone. The summer -- a time when ministries request budget allocations for the coming fiscal year's budget -- should be a time when spirited deliberations are at their peak. There has been little debate this year, however, with the budget request process being reduced to mere number tweaking based on across-the-board budget cuts.
Furthermore, the prime minister and Cabinet members are not on the same page in what they say to the public, and the government lacks the zeal necessary to coordinate a national consensus on anything. Even if their policies were to be complementary to each other, the government lacks the leadership and the know-how to overcome a so-called twisted Diet.
Even with no prospects of bills being passed, ministers continue to order deliberations on various proposals. This leads to increasing discontent among bureaucrats, who are swamped with fruitless work.
Ozawa is said to have mentioned recently that the country will fall apart if things continue as they have. While this is true, hastily jumping to the conclusion that Ozawa will save us will do us no good. That uncontested dictatorship by Ozawa -- or a "democracy" in the style of North Korea -- will lead us to salvation is a mere illusion.
Ozawa has maintained and expanded his power by dominating elections with his financial muscle and cultivating a private army of secretaries and lawmakers. Speaking convincingly about the common good, he believes that the public's happiness is born of pork-barrel politics.
And it is this figure who is jumping on the bandwagon of the Kan administration's ineffectiveness and criticism from public prosecutors and mass media. He is looking for an opportunity to become prime minister, or at least the DPJ's secretary-general. I think the real truth in the mid-summer performances lies here.
When Ozawa visited Hatoyama's summer house on Aug. 19, the day's highest temperature in Karuizawa was 25.3 degrees Celsius. The high in Tokyo, meanwhile, was 33.1 degrees. According to data released by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency the following day, the number of deaths from heatstroke between May 31 and Aug. 15 across the nation was 132.
The figure, however, only includes those who were declared dead at their first medical visit after being transported by emergency vehicles. According to the Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office, which works to uncover the causes of unnatural deaths, over 110 people in Tokyo's 23 wards died from heatstroke since the rainy season ended in mid-July.
An article reporting on an elderly person who died as a result of not being able to use an air-conditioner or a fan because the power had been shut down made it into the paper. The same paper carried a photograph of Kan reading at a resort hotel in Karuizawa. It's a posed photo taken for PR purposes.
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with vacationing in Karuizawa. But when it comes to whether the DPJ is really looking out for the public, it's highly doubtful. (By Takao Yamada, expert senior writer)
(Mainichi Japan) August 23, 2010
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