| Analysis |
Japanese Politics in 1999 13,January 1999 |
| Economic debate which has not been converged yet The issue regarding what will happen in Japanese economy in the future not only interests Japanese people but also interests who investors of the world, and in particular people who are related to financial businesses world in Asia. Although quite a few ecomonists and analysts of Japanese economy in Japanese journalism talk express various opinions about the recovery of the Japanese economy, the analysts do not share their opinions with each other and there is no agreement. Some economists assert demand creation by a financial policy, in other words, active finances in order to recover the economy. On the otherhand, others who opposes the above view by asserting to boldly make progress in structural reformation, fearing the issues such as the structure of the country's debt and financial resource. The former opinion continue to demand financial action. Such an opinion ends up approving the general contractor industry and local public bodies formed by accepting an order of the public works from the country. To make the matter worse, a politician tries to capture the budget by becoming a spokesman. Since the latter opinion agree with the opinion held by the BudgetBureau of the Ministry of Finance to fear any more financial action, it is sometimes valued highly, what is called, as an economist of the governmental office. But, alas, any of the analyses has not been used as the actual governmental policy. The reason for this comes from the fact that there is no policy making system in Japan to reflect an practical economical policy by absorbing and choosing the opinions of economists. From the period of Hashimoto administration, there was an orientation in the government to add activity to the economical policy by utilizing some Prime Minister's Advisory Councils. At the end of the last year, a full report of the Economical Strategic Conference (Chairperson; Mr.Koutarou Higuchi )was proposed. However, nothing has been shown by anyone as to who will carry out or what kind of program will be carried out. Coordinator rather than reformer From the 90's on, the debate on the perspective of Japan's system appeared in the form of reformation. But there is a great distance in meaning to cover between reformation proposed in Japan by Ichiro Ozawa and that proposed by Naoto Kan. Additionally Mr. Ozawa who proposed audacious reformation is supported by rights and interests that center around the general contractor industryi nherited from infamous the late Mr. Kanemaru. However, not many people show concerns about the situation in which this fact is not being heard. On the other hand, although Mr.Kan is known for promoting civil movement and proposing his policy based on social democratic idea, not many people know that he emphasizes particular support and relationships in the economic world and that he receives rights and interests from part of the support and relationships. As far as it is based on a preexisting political system, most of the politicians cannot make daring action. Therefore, this year too, there will be many appearances on the stage of politics of politicians as relieves who are superior in their ability to utilize the Japanese political system. Most of the politicians currently listed frequentlyi n the newspaper including such politicians as Mr. Seiroku Kajiyama and Mr. Hiromu Nonaka are politicians who have superior ability in arbitration and negotiations aimed at reaching a consensus among political parties, the Diet and bureaucracy. And in their background, there are people who are called seniors and experienced being a Prime Minister such as Mr. Nakasone and Mr.Takeshita who are trying to hold on to the rights and interests. Unlike what has been said in journalism, there is no room for a new member of the Diet to become involved in the process of actual policy. To change such a situation, the time has come for the leaders of the new faction named MYKK (Combining the first letter of their family names, Mr. Yoshirou Mori and Mr. Taku Yamazaki and Mr.Kouichi Katou and Mr.Junichirou Koizumi are together referred to as "MYKK") to propose a concept toward coming to power as a leader. However, when they express their view, we hope that they will talk about the concept from the viewpoint that what kind of choice Japan can make at the span of the years 2020 or 2025 with the consideration of the change in the world. | ||||||||
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