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August 1, 2009
As the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officially announced its manifesto on Friday, voters are now ready to compare campaign pledges by political parties for the upcoming general election for the House of Representatives.
The LDP states in its manifesto that it will raise the consumption tax after achieving an economic recovery, replace prefectures with larger entities like states as part of a decentralization of power plan and make early childhood education free of charge on a step-by-step basis over the next three years. Through its manifesto, the LDP attempted to clarify its differences from that of the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
The LDP, which is being overwhelmed by the DPJ's drive to take over the reins of government, faces an unprecedented crisis. Nevertheless, its campaign pledges are vague and their numerical targets and deadlines are obscure. It can be hardly recognized that the LDP has sufficiently demonstrated its goals to the public to compete with the DPJ.
In announcing the manifesto at a news conference, Prime Minister Taro Aso said the LDP is superior to other parties in terms of its ability to fulfill its responsibilities as the governing party. He then emphasized that the LDP places priority on achieving the security of people's livelihoods through its social security and other programs.
The LDP pledged to take measures to support those who are not covered by a pension program and those who are eligible for only small amounts of pension benefits, as well as to make early childhood education free of charge, all within three years.
It also promised to enact legislation to reform the nation's tax system, including the consumption tax, by fiscal 2011. This is in stark contrast with the DPJ, which has failed to clarify financial resources for policy measures it has pledged to implement if it takes over the reins of government.
Still, the LDP's manifesto fails to send a clear message to voters. The prime minister said the LDP "will break away from the excessive market fundamentalism," emphasizing it will implement a middle-size welfare system with a moderate burden on taxpayers. At the same time, the LDP said it will achieve annual economic growth of 2 percent by the latter half of fiscal 2010. However, the manifesto has failed to explain its strategy for attaining the goal of rectifying social problems while achieving economic recovery, specific measures it will implement to that end and the amount of funds necessary for such measures.
Moreover, the LDP manifesto fails to clarify deadlines for achieving some of its policy goals while talking about measures it promises to implement in the distant future.
It states that the LDP will aim to replace prefectural governments with larger local bodies six to eight years after a basic law on the decentralization of power is enacted, reduce the number of seats in both houses of the Diet by at least 30 percent in 10 years and increase each household's after-tax annual income by at lest 1 million yen within 10 years. One cannot help but wonder whether it is appropriate for a political party to make an election pledge to implement policy measures 10 years later.
The LDP manifesto states that it will implement policy measures outlined in its manifesto in four years unless the deadline is specified. However, even this is still too vague.
Unlike the previous general election in 2005 in which only the pros and cons of postal privatization was at issue, the comprehensive policies of political parties will be tested in the upcoming election. Political parties should clarify the short-term schedule for implementing measures they pledge, as well as how to achieve them.
The crisis within the LDP involves its confusion over what slogans it should adopt to counter the DPJ, which is calling for reform of bureaucrat-dominated politics and protection of people's livelihoods, on top of its fear of losing the election and becoming an opposition party.
In finalizing its manifesto, the LDP reportedly struggled to coordinate opinions between its legislators on the wording of Japan's use of collective self-defense and a ban on public servants' landing lucrative post-retirement jobs in the industry they once supervised. This illustrates the seriousness of the confusion within the LDP.
Now that almost all political parties have announced their election campaign pledges, voters are ready to discuss how to prevent the birthrate from declining further, how to balance the debt-ridden state budget and the future of the Japan-U.S. alliance among other important policy issues. Each party's ability to hold the reins of government will be finally tested during the election campaign.
However, parties should not regard the manifestos they have announced as the final editions. They should brush them up to provide better explanations of their policies to voters.
(Mainichi Japan) August 1, 2009
BY NORIO YATSU, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2009/8/1
The Foreign Ministry raced to destroy more than 1,000 tons of records in the months before a disclosure law took effect in 2001, a study by a private body has found.
The speed and the scale of the activity suggest the ministry was desperate to avert demands for the release of sensitive material, possibly including classified documents about a secret deal between Japan and the United States on the movement of nuclear weapons in Japanese territory.
According to the study by Information Clearinghouse Japan, the amount of material pulped by the ministry in fiscal 2000 was easily the largest by any government body.
It suggested the ministry had carefully planned the operation to hide damaging information.
The study by the nonprofit body reveals the Foreign Ministry destroyed about 1,280 tons of material in fiscal 2000, which ended in March 2001. The information disclosure law went into effect the following month.
That was more than double the volume discarded by the Finance Ministry, which trashed about 620 tons, making it second among government ministries and agencies.
The group made its findings based on copies of government records obtained using the information disclosure law.
The findings also showed that the volume of documents shredded by the Foreign Ministry increased conspicuously in fiscal 1999, when the legislation was enacted. In fiscal 1997, the ministry destroyed about 200 tons of documents, roughly the same amount discarded by other government branches that year.
The volume peaked in fiscal 2000, then fell over the following two fiscal years.
Yukiko Miki, a director of the group, said the timing and trajectory of the ministry's recycling activities were almost certainly no coincidence.
"It's likely the Foreign Ministry had been elaborately preparing to discard material before the enforcement of the law to ensure the material was destroyed rather than being made public."
In July, the ministry was catapulted into controversy over claims by former Japanese government officials that, at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union, Japan reached a deal allowing U.S. warships and aircraft to carry nuclear weapons through Japanese territory.
The government has consistently denied the existence of the pact, which was supposedly clinched around 1960.
But declassified U.S. documents and testimony from high-ranking U.S. officials contradict their claims.
Ikuko Komachiya, a lawyer who specializes in cases involving disclosure of government documents--including another alleged secret deal between Japan and the United States over the 1972 return of Okinawa to Japan--is appalled by the prospect that records about the pact may have been destroyed.
"The government cannot be forgiven for destroying crucial documents without being made accountable to the public (over such a deal)," she said. "We can't review the government's policy since what really happened remains a mystery. This sort of thing will happen again unless people voice their anger."
Under current law, ministries and agencies are given discretion to determine which documents they will keep.
Osamu Ishii, professor emeritus of the history of diplomacy at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, said he was disgusted by the government's action, which revealed a significant difference in the way the Japanese and U.S. governments handle their records.
"In the United States, even telephone conversations made by high-ranking government officials are taped and their transcripts kept as official documents," Ishii said.
"If the U.S. government does not disclose the content of official documents, it at least specifies that they exist. That reflects its sincere belief that official documents belong to the public.
"In contrast, ordering official records to be destroyed, as was the case here, is tantamount to the debasement of history and a crime against taxpayers. I'm outraged."
Classified documents destroyed by the Foreign Ministry are recycled into toilet paper and other products.
Government bodies generally destroy their records by shredding them, crushing them or dissolving them in water.
The Justice Ministry combines the first and the third method.
It shreds documents with a large shredder in the basement of its building, then sends them to a recycling factory to be dissolved in water.
The Foreign Ministry uses the third method.
According to people familiar with the disposal procedure, the ministry dissolves classified documents in water using a large machine in the basement of its building, then processes them into clumps of material similar to that used to make papier-mache.
The machine is capable of processing about 2 tons of paper a day.
It mixes the paper and water in a one-to-one ratio until the paper loses its shape and its pulp fibers become loose.
When the text on the paper is no longer legible, the pulp is made into balls, about the same size as those used in pachinko.
These are then given to a recycler, which processes them into toilet paper, tissue paper and other paper products. Some of this toilet paper is used at the ministry.(IHT/Asahi: August 1,2009)
- Ministry destroyed tons of sensitive records (8/1) ★
BY NORIO YATSU, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
The Foreign Ministry raced to destroy more than 1,000 tons of records in the months before a disclosure law took effect in 2001, a study by a private body has found. continued ...
- Aso puts stress on party's strengths (8/1)
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Prime Minister Taro Aso unveiled his ruling party's campaign platform for the Aug. 30 Lower House election on Friday, saying it demonstrated its "sense of responsibility" to the public. continued ...
- EDITORIAL: Age of majority debate (8/1)
Because the Civil Law sets the age of majority at 20, upon reaching that age a person may sign cellphone service contracts, order products by mail order or marry without parental consent, among other things. continued ...
- EDITORIAL: Size of government (8/1)
Both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) are offering a variety of policy proposals to garner votes in the Aug. 30 Lower House election. continued ...
Riichiro Maeki
The Democratic Party of Japan announced its manifesto on Monday for the upcoming House of Representatives election.
A briefing held at the party headquarters that morning was crowded with news reporters, as was a press conference in a Tokyo hotel in the afternoon. Copies of the manifesto prepared for the press disappeared in a flash.
Many people with a connection to the political world sensed this was a dramatic change and, naturally, I myself felt so, too.
With the greatest respect to the DPJ, far less attention has been paid to its manifestos in the past since many observers had the impression that they were little more than pie-in-the-sky ideas presented by a party destined to stay in opposition. Copies of DPJ manifestos used to remain piled high with few takers.
It is almost hard to believe that the DPJ could face a deluge of requests from all directions from people wanting copies of its manifesto as is the case at the moment. DPJ candidates scheduled to stand in the lower house election are no doubt overjoyed at being similarly bombarded with requests for the manifesto.
This is the third time the DPJ has released a manifesto for a lower house election, following the polls of 2003 and 2005. For House of Councillors elections, the DPJ issued manifestos in 2004 and 2007.
The biggest difference from past elections is the growing possibility of a power shift. As the likelihood increases that the DPJ will take power, so the policies proposed in its manifesto come closer to being acted upon. Because the latest manifesto is full of rosy proposals, including toll-free highways, free public high school education and monthly child-raising allowances worth \26,000 per child, it is only to be expected that everybody wants to read it.
Though the Liberal Democratic Party has issued manifestos over the years, they have rarely attracted much attention.
Indeed, the very idea of contesting an election using manifestos was first seriously urged by the DPJ, and if anything the LDP has been far from enthusiastic about this approach.
In addition, the public has increasingly felt a strong sense of distrust toward the LDP's election pledges, believing them merely to be promises to be ignored and forgotten once an election is over.
At the same time, many members of the public have started to see a hitherto unrecognized attractiveness in having the DPJ hold the reins of power.
The public seems to believe that as the DPJ has emphasized the importance of manifestos so much, the party might actually make an effort to carry out its pledges to a certain degree.
With all due to the LDP, can it not be said that the expectations generated by the DPJ's manifesto and the hopes raised of a possible shift of power are a result of the LDP's repeated failure in the past to live up to the expectations it created?
The LDP has slammed the DPJ's manifesto by questioning how it will secure revenue sources for its spending plans.
The DPJ wrote in its manifesto: "The funding required is \16.8 trillion. To finance these policies, \9.1 trillion will be secured by reforming government expenditure by eliminating wasteful spending among other measures; \5 trillion will be found from 'buried treasure' [surplus funds in special accounts]; and \2.7 trillion from a review of special taxation measures."
These measures for securing the necessary funds have been slammed as unrealistic, but at least the DPJ has clarified what policies will be implemented and when, and how they will be funded.
The very fact that criticism has been leveled at the DPJ's ideas makes it clear that voters have become increasingly conscious about the funding of government spending. But when it comes to the government's revenue sources, essentially there's only really taxation.
What I would like to see is policy debate in the election campaign on tax burdens and the way taxpayers' money is spent so that the public pays more attention to these issues and the level of Japanese politics is enhanced.
Maeki is a deputy political news editor of The Yomiuri Shimbun.
(Aug. 1, 2009)
- ELECTION 2009--BATTLE FOR POWER / Aso unveils economy-focused manifesto (Aug.1)
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday announced the Liberal Democratic Party's manifesto for the upcoming House of Representatives election, pledging to increase public spending to shore up the economy. continued ...
- ELECTION 2009--BATTLE FOR POWER / Opposition joint pledge to keep sales tax as is (Aug.1)
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Democratic Party of Japan, Social Democratic Party and People's New Party all say they will not raise the consumption tax rate if the parties win the upcoming House of Representatives election, according to a draft of their common policy pledges for the election. continued ...
- ELECTION 2009--BATTLE FOR POWER / DPJ slams LDP's 2005 manifesto shortfalls (Aug.1)
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan criticized the Liberal Democratic Party for accomplishing very little in relation to the promises laid out in the LDP's manifesto from the 2005 House of Representatives election, rating the degree of achievement as "20 out of 100." continued ...
- ELECTION 2009--BATTLE FOR POWER / Coalition partners hold key to DPJ policies (Aug.1)
Yuichi Suzuki and Yoichi Shiraishi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
The House of Representatives election on Aug. 30 will be a battle over who will form the next coalition government--the Liberal Democratic Party or the Democratic Party of Japan--and the makeup of that coalition.
There are similarities, but also some crucial differences, in policies between the parties likely to make up any coalition. Below is an analysis of the stability of two potential coalitions, based on their manifestos. continued ...
- Briefing didn't stop N-research / Ministry explained watch list, but project with Iranian went on (Aug.1)
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A Tohoku University professor continued working on a joint research project with a former student of an Iranian research institute even after the government had explained to the university about a blacklist linking the institute to nuclear weapons research, it was learned Friday. continued ...
- How's life on an MSDF destroyer off Somalia? (Aug.1)
Tetsuya Mizuno / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers have been conducting antipiracy operations since March in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, about 12,000 kilometers from Japan. continued ...
- Commentary :: POLITICAL PULSE / Can manifesto deepen debate? / Meaning of DPJ document may go beyond the pledges it contains (Aug.1)
Riichiro Maeki
The Democratic Party of Japan announced its manifesto on Monday for the upcoming House of Representatives election. continued ...
- Editorial :: Responsible party needs responsible policies (Aug.1)
The Liberal Democratic Party on Friday unveiled its campaign platform for the upcoming House of Representatives election.
Although the manifesto contained an unusual phrase lauding the party's "ability to govern responsibly," the LDP was at pains to trumpet that it is a responsible political party and spelled out where it differed from the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
However, sections on how the LDP will carry out its policies are riddled with vague explanation. We think the LDP should describe its policies in far more detail during political debates from now on. continued ...
Saturday 01st August, 04:59 AM JST
TOKYO —
Prosecutors Friday decided not to indict a secretary to Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai for a second time in a political donation case involving contractor Nishimatsu Construction Co. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office cited a lack of evidence for a link between the secretary, whose name has been withheld, and a third-party purchase of 3.4 million yen worth of fundraising party tickets for a Liberal Democratic Party faction led by Nikai.
The office has filed a criminal charge on a former Nishimatsu president, Mikio Kunisawa, for making donations through the company’s dummy organizations in violation of the political funds control law. Prosecutors said in the latest decision that they did not discover any evidence or facts that the secretary conspired with Kunisawa. Kunisawa has been convicted separately of giving 5 million yen in illegal donations to the fund-managing body and local party branch offices of former Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa. On July 17, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Kunisawa to 16 months in jail, suspended for three years, for the charge.
August 1, 2009
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