Japan's New(?) Politics
BERGER, MICHAEL
THE VIEW FROM THE STREET Japan's New(?) Politics BY MICHAEL BERGER Tokyo "Good morning! Good morning! This is Nobuo Imai—Nobuo Imai —thank you for taking timeout of your busy schedule...
...These younger LDP members quit out of frustration...
...The result was an unsparing indictment of politicsas-usual...
...A few days later former Finance Minister Tsutomu Hata, one of the defection's leaders, announced the creation of a new party and held out the prospect of much-needed political reform...
...As the country prepares for elections to the Lower House of Parliament on July 18, the political landscape looks dramatically unfamiliar...
...It's time for a change...
...They don't seem to know much about everyday life in their own country...
...The voters, moreover, can be heard expressing their desire for change...
...The Socialists made the poorest showing, losing 18 of their 32 seats in the 128-member Assembly...
...Moderate Socialists, the JNP and the various conservative splinters are all potential players...
...Prime Minister Miyazawa promised reform when he came into office, then did nothing...
...Michael Berger contributes frequently to The New Leader from Japan...
...If the Tokyo elections are any indication, a new political mainstream is about to appear that may finally fill the longstanding void between the Right and Left...
...Although his past connections do present something of an image problem, he is nonetheless esteemed for his intelligence and is presumed to be the group's chief strategist...
...The bureaucrats make the laws and control the economy, don't they...
...The largest gain was registered by the Center-Right reform movement known as the Japan New Party (JNP): It vaulted from two Assembly seats to 20...
...Its sole purpose is to give ordinary citizens a chance to vent their frustrations, whether over the latest trade crunch with America, high prices, or the scandal of the month...
...took its cameras out on the streets...
...Over the last month, though, the emotional level has been turned up several notches...
...So has Suzuki, who declared that he likes Hosokawa...
...The night before Parliament delivered the vote that brought down Miyazawa's government, Objection...
...Characterized in recent years by a failure to vote in significant numbers, young Japanese have been exhibiting definite signs of interest in the opportunity to bring about change...
...and my wife is too...
...I never voted once before...
...They've decided who the bad guys and the good guys are...
...Too ideological and too unrealistic...
...I just couldn't trust the Socialists...
...Interestingly, television is becoming the medium of choice for Japanese popular debate and complaint, supplanting the "Letters to the Editor" columns in newspapers...
...But a minority of its members who continue to hold far Left views loudly rejects any alliance with the emerging Center, causing speculation that a Socialist breakup may be in the making...
...In fact, the schism in the LDP has brought about a less publicized crisis in the Social Democratic Party (still referred to domestically as the Socialist Party), Japan's second-largest political formation and the traditional opposition...
...We have had one-party rule for so long," explained housewife Hanako Ohara, "that I am afraid it will take a long time for these new parties to find ways to work together...
...Politicians, to me, are like useless trash...
...considered to have been one of the cleaner LDP figures—than to the Renaissance Party's other architect, Ichiro Ozawa...
...After all," said Tetsuo Komiya an officeemployee, "these so-called 'rebels' are former LDP members...
...You can't call them completly clean, can you...
...I must give them credit," Komiya added...
...This time I am going to...
...That favorite American political slogan is not only frequently heard here these days, but it also appears to have stirred the younger generation...
...That is one thing that irritates me about our politicians," said office worker Saya Okamoto...
...If Miyazawa's cohorts fail to win a majority, the Socialists may get their chance to govern as part of a Centrist coalition...
...and the conservative party that has ruled for close to four decades is reeling from three major scandals in the past five years...
...But this time the words were coming from a loudspeaker perched atop a van as it cruised slowly through a neighborhood on a muggy summer day...
...People say we have a first-rate economy and third-rate politicians," said one young man reacting to the news of the ruling party's intrigues...
...Families have become accustomed to having their morning sleep or evening meals interrupted by impassioned urgings to support one candidate or another when an election is imminent...
...Forty-three LDP members joined Hata, while others broke off to form minor parties, leaving the conservatives with 57 fewer seats...
...On June 18, rebellious LDP legislators joined with the Socialist opposition to cast a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, effectively dissolving Parliament...
...Leader Sadao Yamahana has expressed interest in such an arrangement, and has moved recently to dispel the image of his party as ideologically isolated...
...A sudden split in the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has created a situation at once volatile and promising...
...I've felt this way a long time," Kato went on, "but until now, I never felt I had a real choice...
...Now bitter disputes with its trading partners have exposed the cost of Japan's prosperity...
...the Cold War's end has left socialism in limbo...
...One network features a weekly prime-time show with the English title Objection...
...Even his children have been caught up in the ceaseless televised commentary on the shifting political scene...
...The half-apologetic opening is standard in many Japanese conversations...
...A middle-aged woman was more blunt: "They don't care about the country, they only care about passing around money among themselves...
...Despite their having the most meaningful political choices in a generation, though, many Japaneseare wary of setting their hopes too high...
...Every night there is something new to report...
...How much clout each party will wield is perhaps the major question to be decided by voters...
...Why do we need politicians...
...Maybe our biggest problem is finding common-sense politicians, whether they're honest or not...
...I'm sick and tired of money politics," said businessman Yoichi Kato, using a term that neatly sums up the LDP's version of what Americans call "pork barrel," or worse...
...That impression was bolstered by the outcome of Tokyo's municipal elections held the last Sunday in June...
...Once the protege of Shin Kanemaru, the notorious conservative power broker who fell to scandal early this year and will soon stand trial, Ozawa is widely viewed as a master of the very dealings his new party condemns...
...The LDP will almost certainly remain the largest single party in the Diet...
...It seeks to present itself as a viable alternative to the status quo—something the Socialists have failed to do...
...Launched early last year by Morihiro Hosokawa, a former popular governor who quit the LDP (see "Perotism Across the Pacific," NL, June 29, 1992), the JNP has put forward a consumer-oriented platform calling for an end to corporate patronage and a reduced bureaucracy...
...Some are openly skeptical of the defectors...
...They have been publicly criticizing the old LDP leadership for more than half a year...
...I'm willing to give them a chance, if only to shake up the system...
...Watching the political news on TV is getting to be more fun than watching baseball," said 32-year-old office worker Jiro Suzuki...
...But Hata—whose Shinseito group has adopted "Renaissance Party" as its English name—makes no secret of his readiness to form a coalition broad enough to force the LDP from power...
...Government here since World War II has been based on two tenets: Economic growth is good for the country, and opponents of the LDP are either dangerous or incompetent...
...This proves it...
...It is a charge that sticks less to Hata...
...As Japan's lawmakers vie for the spotlight with their talk of reform, or of relying on experience, or of market deregulation, or of reducing the cost of living, it is easy to overlook the reason for their new messages blaring from those loudspeakers on the vans: Voters are demanding that their needs be addressed, and they want leaders who show they are willing to listen...
...asked an elderly man...
...They played money politics too, didn't they...
...The LDP actually gained two seats, but only because the breakaway groups did not have time to field any candidates...
...This is Nobuo Imai—Nobuo Imai —thank you for taking timeout of your busy schedule to listen to me...
Vol. 76 • June 1993 • No. 8
