We see danger in how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe runs his administration. Backed by high approval rates and the giant ruling bloc, Diet members are also making their way at Abe’s pace. In the current extraordinary Diet session, agricultural policy reform came up as an important issue, along with other major bills such as the state secrets protection bill. The problem is the overhasty way which the agricultural reform is dealt with, lacking sufficient discussion. Prime Minister’s Office suddenly shoots up radical measures such as abolishing the rice production adjustment program or revising the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Law, and leads the discussion to make them broadly recognized. Their way of pushing through by sheer force of numbers is nothing but a denial of parliamentary democracy.
The current Diet session is extremely significant in that it discusses the state secrets bill, which has the danger of infringing on people’s right of access to information and freedom of the press, and the bill to establish a Japanese version of the United States National Security Council in the Cabinet to enable the prime minister to lead the discussion on important matters concerning security and foreign policy. The debate on whether to permit Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense is also underway. Abe’s long-cherished goal of rewriting the pacifist Constitution is put under seal for the time being, but he is apparently trying to change the nation’s foreign and defense policies, which can be taken as a de facto reinterpretation of the Constitution.
As for economic policies, the main issue is the bill to strengthen industrial competitiveness, in which the government conducts deregulation and structural reform and realize its economic revitalization strategy adopted by the Cabinet in June. The government also aims to pass a bill to create national strategic special zones, as part of its growth strategy. In the special zones, there is a concern that market principles might be introduced into sectors which directly relate to people’s lives, such as agriculture, labor and medical services. Meanwhile, the decision to raise the consumption tax from April was made hastily, shelving important issues such as social welfare reform, Diet reform and thorough cuts in expenditure to pursue fiscal discipline.
Concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, which could endanger national sovereignty, local autonomy and the basis of people’s livelihood, the government has not disclosed information or fulfilled its accountability, claiming that it has signed a confidentiality agreement. Abe is eager to go along with the U.S. which leads the TPP negotiations and meet the target of striking a deal by the year end, and many express concerns over possible compromises that Japan would make for that purpose. Akira Amari, minister in charge of the TPP, even said in the Diet that the government has not specified sensitive items which should be protected from tariff eliminations, making people increasingly worried and suspicious about the government’s unstable negotiation policies.
We cannot overlook the fact that discussions on reforming agriculture and agricultural cooperatives have come up from the agricultural subcommittee of the government’s Industrial Competitiveness Council and the agricultural working group of the Regulatory Reform Council, taking in advance the government’s moves under the TPP and deregulatory reform.
The ongoing debate on agricultural reform is remarkably similar to policymaking procedures taken under the “advisory board politics” by pro-deregulation advocates – former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Heizo Takenaka, minister in charge of Japan Post privatization under Koizumi. Like in the days of Koizumi, the government lets private sector members of advisory boards put up radical policy proposals and uses media reports to spread the impression that the JA group is the old guard and the opposition force of structural reforms.
We are deeply concerned that many of such important issues have not been debated sufficiently in the Diet. Although the current Diet is represented by a ruling bloc with a stable majority and many other minority parties, parliamentarians who are charged with the responsibility to convey the voters’ voices must work to avoid Abe from going out of control, and should raise truly constructive discussions from the people’s perspectives. We also urge the Abe administration to steer state policies with caution, and avoid being carried away by the success of winning a comfortable majority.
(Nov. 1, 2013)