5, 15. 2006
Will Diet debate get fired up with Ozawa's emergence?
He is a graduate of the Keio University with an economics degree. But he has not had much chance to talk about economics since he was elected a Diet (parliament) member. While he was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, his specialty was not in the policy field but in the party and faction affairs. His activities were focused on power struggles and the distribution of interests and rights. This, of course, would go to any member of the party and Ozawa was no different from other LDP members.
Fully Involved in "Big Government" in Old Days
Policy affairs are wholly left up to the bureaucrats to take care of , but the personnel affairs of the bureaucy system are in the hand of the LDP. This is how the party has long maintained the governing power. High-level basic policies are worked out by the bureaucrats, while the low-level local policies are left to bring benefits to party's own electoral constituencies and supporting (industrial) organizations. This is the structure the party has created, whereby directions are set by the bureaucrats but specific "allotments" are supervised by politicians. Road and dam constructions are mapped out by the government offices, but the politicians would have the influence over the locations of the road and dam constructions in order of priority.
Ozawa assumed the influential position as Secretary General of the LDP while he was still young with the backing of such powerful politicians as Kakuei Tanaka and Shin Kanemaru,
who were of the type of interest and rights with the emphasis placed on public project works. At that time, he was at the center of the LDP, which was a mixtures of the politics and bureaucracy and totally involved in the big government relying on fiscal affairs.
Underlying what he said in the book he wrote in 1993, Nippon Kaizou Keikaku (Japan Reform Plan), however, is the idea of new liberalism that places an emphasis on the deregulation, self-responsibility and small government. His opinion was that the politics could not be reformed by dependency on bureaucracy which had been in existence since the pre-war days. He held that the personnel of the government had to be reduced, competition had to be promoted by deregulation through limiting the authority of the bureaucrats, and the economy had to be made more effective. He also insisted on the necessity of opening up of the market and the expanding of domestic demand.
He seemed to be working out his policy by anticipating what Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi keeps saying today. It is of no use to question about how the "reform plan" which has been carried out by the administration, bureaucrats and industry as one group in the past would be connected to his policy. Ozawa changed his assertion only because he found himself in a different position. At that time he lost the power struggle within the Takeshita faction, which was the largest faction in the party. He then faced a turning point in his political career. He organized a new faction and left the LDP. To found a new party, a policy to oppose the LDP was needed. Japan Reform Plan was written with the help of the reformist bureaucrats inside the bureaucracy system who are skeptical of the old ways.
Backpedalling on Cherished Opinions of Self-responsibility, Competition Principle
Besides the help from the reformist bureaucrats, requests from the United States were also accepted. Demanding the opening up of the Japanese markets, the United States hoped for deregulation by Japan. The reform movement to break the vested rights of the unified group of some LDP Diet members and the bureaucracy system was a policy Ozawa's new party had to have in order to obtain backing from the U.S. government. While Ozawa was wandering between opposition parties, Koizumi made the "reform line" his trade mark. To stand face to face to Koizumi's line as head of the Democratic party, Ozawa had to make clear the policy difference from Koizumi's. What Ozawa worked out in this connection is "kyousei (coexistence)." He had to backpedal on his cherished opinion of self-responsibility and competition principle. The policy was adjusted to protect the life-time employment and seniority system of the business firms by taking into consideration the weak.
As long as Ozawa is the leader of the Democratic Party, he is unlikely to cry loudly for deregulation and opening up of markets. What are held in common by Ozawa and the Democratic Party are such matters as the simplification of administrative system, decentralization of power, and improvement of annuity and social security by raising the consumption tax. Rectification of disparity by government leadership would draw line to differentiate from privatization policy. It is foreseen that the axis will roll toward the improvement of welfare benefit and public education, etc. to make up a big government.
Written by Atsushi Yamada
