Global IssuesPOLITICS: Challenges Temper Optimism as New Premier Vows Reform
Expectations are high for Japan’s new prime minister, Naoto Kan, who has taken over the reins of a country saddled with massive public debt and a domestic furore over the failure of the former head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and newly resigned premier Yukio Hatoyama to deliver on his campaign pledge to move the controversial U.S. military base out of the southern island of Okinawa.
A survey conducted by the ‘Asahi Shimbun’, Japan’s major daily, showed a public approval rating of 59 percent for the newly appointed leader and Japan’s former finance minister, which stood in stark contrast to a dismal 20 percent rating for Hatoyama just before he stepped down Wednesday last week.
Kan was installed as prime minister two days later.
Shinichi Hattori, 45, says he wants Kan 'to concentrate on the Japanese economy and exert firm leadership.' Added the company employee: 'I am glad he has taken over.'
Hatoyama resigned under pressure from his party members due to plummeting public support and following his controversial dismissal of a member of his Cabinet — consumer affairs minister Mizuho Fukushima — who protested the former’s decision to relocate the Futenma U.S. military base within, instead of outside, Okinawa.
Kan, 63, who hails from an ordinary middle class family, has pledged to run a government that would create 'a society with the least unhappiness.' He also talked of the importance of 'a strong economy, strong public finances and strong social security.'
'The choice of Kan as premier ushers in a new era and opportunities for Japan that had been stuck in conservative politics. But with time short, given the upper house elections next month, he faces rough sailing,' says Ryuichi Narita, who teaches contemporary Japanese history at Japan Women’s University.
Observers say Kan must sustain his popularity to enable the DPJ to gain a clear majority in the upcoming election, a feat that ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’, Japan’s leading daily, said would be an uphill struggle.
Kan, a graduate of the prestigious Tokyo Institute of Technology, began his political career in the 1980s. In 1996, as health and welfare minister, he gained widespread public admiration when he exposed a government cover- up of HIV-tainted blood products that caused thousands of individuals to contract the AIDS-causing virus.
On the economic front, Kan is also expected to develop a more balanced economy that is responsive to the needs of the people. Narita maintains it should replace the relentless privatisation and market-oriented policies pursued by the previous administrations, resulting in a massive loss of jobs.
Kan symbolises a crucial departure from the traditional pork barrel politics — a term that refers to lavish spending aimed at winning votes — that critics say has been the hallmark of Japan’s political life in the last 60 years, especially under the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which suffered a resounding defeat to the DPJ during the lower house election last year.
Japan, under the LDP’s watch, has been rocked by various corruption scandals, such as those involving expensive infrastructure projects, including dams, which reportedly generated kickbacks for government officials.
The DPJ, in its manifesto released prior to the lower house vote, pledged to put a freeze on dam construction, saying it was out to invest in 'people, not in concrete.'
'Kan is a skilled politician who cares about policy issues. His election has refocused attention as to why voters wanted the DPJ last summer,' says Jeff Kingston, a Japan specialist at Tokyo-based Temple University.
On foreign policy, Kan’s background augurs well for a reinvigorated relationship with Asia, particularly with Japan’s former colonies in the region, which has dogged mutual trust.
Kan has been a vociferous critic of former LDP politicians’ visits to Yasukuni Shrine — a symbol of Japan’s war expansion in Asia — where war criminals are buried along with some 2.5 million Japanese war dead.
The newly installed premier who is known for his activist roots declared Tuesday he would not be turning his back on the country’s commitment to Washington under the Japan-U.S. Security Pact — a stance that experts say provides an opportunity for Japan to forge a more partnership-based relationship with the latter. But Kan also announced that he would deal with the contentious U.S. maritime base issue by 'giving top priority to lessening the burden on Okinawa prefecture and based on the Japan-U.S. Security Agreement.'
But what could deal a serious blow to Kan’s leadership, says Koichi Ishiyama, an international finance professor at Toin University of Yokohama, is the country’s high fiscal debt, which is said to be twice the country’s gross domestic product and the highest in the industrialised world, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Kan has also talked about raising the current five percent consumption tax to boost Japan’s public coffers. But Ishiyama fears this might not sit well with the public and could cost his party the July election. 'Few governments can survive by increasing taxes,' he warns.
The Asahi warned in its editorial Tuesday that Kan has no time to waste. Among other issues he needs to resolve, it said, is revising the DPJ mandate that promised social handouts, leading to increased public debt.
Japan Women’s University’s Narita still hopes Kan will be able to win public support once he implements stringent economic policies, including cuts to fiscal spending.
Already, there are signs of such support. 'I am willing to give Kan a chance. He is better than Hatoyama and I certainly do not want old, corrupt politics to return after July,' says Kanako Nakayama, a school librarian.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service