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Ozawa taking his toll on Japan’s DPJ government

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In Brief

The Hatoyama administration’s handling of the road toll issue is illustrative of its handling of policy issues in general and the nature of the policy-making process under the current DPJ government.

Firstly, the dual structure of party-government policy-making remains entrenched. The DPJ is supposed to stay out of policy-making, but constant intervention by Secretary-General Ozawa is maintaining an LDP-style dual structure of party-cabinet government and is blocking the transition to a cabinet-centred system, which was the DPJ plan. Instead of the LDP’s PARC, the power of the party in policy-making is concentrated in Ozawa’s hands.

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The warning of an ex-MLIT official prior to last August’s Lower House election is being borne out: ‘there is a big possibility that a two-tiered power structure of the government and the party will be created if Ozawa and others who wield power in their own right (jitsuryokusha) remain outside the Cabinet.

Not only is Ozawa pro-active in pushing his own ideas on policies, but he is also acting as a channel for bottom-up pressure from other DPJ backbenchers as well as from interest groups and local interests. But by intervening in key policy areas, the party (read Ozawa) is directly undermining cabinet ministers and therefore the cabinet.

On the highway toll issue and in other areas, such as agricultural public works, Ozawa has been described as exercising the ‘voice of authority’. The phrase tsuru no hitokoe is used in Japanese, which literally means the ‘final word’ or ‘a decision made by a figure of authority’. Ozawa directly challenged MLIT Minister Maehara’s road toll plan announced on 9th April, which was due for introduction in June. He concocted a meeting of top government and party officials, which resulted in an agreement to review the plan. Ozawa also made public statements attacking the Maehara plan, warning against the DPJ breaking its election promises, although this particular factor did not appear to concern him on other issues, such as maintaining the gasoline surtax and introducing an income qualification for the child allowance (on the latter he was unsuccessful). Moreover, the government had already broken its promise to introduce toll-free highways across Japan from fiscal 2010, restricting it to a limited number of highways in outlying regional areas

Secondly, the conflict between Ozawa and cabinet ministers is generating wider discord in the cabinet leading to vacillating government policy and indecisive political leadership. It is now unclear what the government’s highway toll policy is. Hatoyama has temporarily given the green light to Maehara’s plan, but its longer-term future is by no means secure because of Ozawa’s influence.

Hatoyama is proving to be a weak leader, which provides greater scope for Ozawa to exercise his influence. As Professor Mikuriya Takashi of Tokyo University wrote in the March issue of Chūō Kōron, ‘Ozawa is only the Secretary General but is exceeding his authority’. The prime minister has failed to rein in Ozawa and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirano Hirofumi is doing no better, despite his ostensibly important coordinating role between the government and the party. There are few challenges to Ozawa being openly voiced by other DPJ Diet members. Amongst the few are Maehara, who has refused to deal with Ozawa directly, and DPJ elder statesman Watanabe Kōzō who pointed out that it was Maehara who was the minister, and therefore he should have the final word on road toll policy.

Thirdly, shallow electoral opportunism is undermining government policy. Key initiatives are being subordinated to election strategy, as defined by Ozawa, the self-appointed guardian of the DPJ’s political interests. Ozawa’s prerogative is most keenly exercised in those areas of policy that could be seen to have a direct impact on the DPJ’s likely performance in the forthcoming Upper House poll in July. The highway toll issue is an obvious candidate, because Maehara’s policy might have resulted in some drivers paying more than they do under the current system.

However, thanks to Ozawa’s influence, public works policy is also being used as an election tool. This is despite the central importance of the DPJ’s ‘from concrete to people’ slogan in the 2009 election and the 18.3 per cent cut in the public works budget for 2010 (including a 25.1 per cent cut in the road budget).

Ozawa is on record as wanting to use surplus funds generated by the road tolls as money for constructing new roads as an electoral ploy for the July poll. Because of his input, the Maehara plan was due to divert about ¥1.4 trillion into road construction and maintenance. As Maehara himself commented, ‘The ministry drew up the plan because the DPJ requested that the ministry help build new highways….It is only natural that we need to finance such a plan with some of the money originally earmarked for highway toll discounts….It is contradictory to say that toll hikes are unacceptable after submitting such a request’.

Not only Hatoyama but also Ozawa is flip-flopping on policy, with his election strategy leading him in contradictory directions.

In a section of his article entitled ‘Ozawa’s use-by date is past’, Professor Mikuriya argues, ‘There is an internal contradiction in Ozawa’s attempts to achieve political reform using old methods derived from Tanaka Kakuei….Ozawa’s resignation will bring the construction state to an end and…bring an end to the binding of party politics and money’. Mikuriya’s words are prescient given the possibility that the Tokyo District Public Prosectors Office may now indict Ozawa for false reporting by his fund management body.

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