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Nagano's maverick: Wake-up
call?
By Purnendra Jain
ADELAIDE - The mountainous prefecture of Nagano
in central Japan shot into international prominence in
1998 as the host of the Winter Olympics. Two years
later, in October 2000, it again made national and
international headlines when 44-year-year-old political
novice Yasuo Tanaka secured the top political job of
prefectural governor, defeating a high-ranking
bureaucrat.
But in the conservative paradise of
regional politics of Japan, the political life of an
independent, reform-minded and people-oriented regional
leader as symbolized by Tanaka cannot be easy. Tanaka's
political style and policy preferences faced tough
opposition, especially from the old political forces
such as top prefectural bureaucrats and local assembly
members. Some of his policy declarations became so
unbearable for the conservative members of Nagano's
prefectural assembly that they took recourse to the
ultimate political weapon and passed a no-confidence
motion against Tanaka in July, again putting Nagano in
the news both nationally and globally.
Instead
of dissolving the assembly, a standard operating
procedure, Tanaka decided to surrender his own post,
forcing a fresh gubernatorial election. What made the
situation more complicated was that Tanaka declared his
intention to run again and vowed to recover his seat
through the next election, a scenario the opposing side
did not anticipate.
Tanaka has now returned to
his position with a vengeance by obtaining a larger
percentage of votes than before. According to Sunday's
election results, Tanaka received 822,897 votes,
defeating by a large margin his nearest rival, female
lawyer Keiko Hasegawa, also an independent, but
supported by the anti-Tanaka assembly members and many
of the conservative mayors and town heads within Nagano
prefecture.
It was indeed a foolish act on the
part of the assembly members to oust Tanaka in the first
place rather than making some political compromises,
especially given the fact that he was one of the most
popular leaders not only within Nagano but also
nationally. When elected two years ago, Tanaka was one
of the few governors in Japan's 47 prefectures to be
successful as an independent candidate. Typically
governors in Japan are drawn from high-ranking national
civil servants who descend from the world of bureaucracy
to politics. Because of their wide-ranging connections
and prestige value, they receive support from most of
the established political parties and local business
groups, and thus their success at elections is almost
certain.
Nagano's previous two governors, who
prior to Tanaka's election ruled the prefecture for 41
years since 1959, were former bureaucrats with
long-established and strong connections with the central
government, connections that are essential for securing
national subsidies for public-works projects such as
roads, bridges and dams. These public-works projects in
regional Japan serve as economic lifelines for local
businesses. Tanaka's rival in 2000, former vice governor
Fumitaka Ikeda, would have been a natural choice for the
governorship - he was also instrumental in securing the
Winter Olympics for Nagano.
But the voters of
Nagano wanted change. They wanted someone who could
challenge the existing system and inject fresh ideas
into an ailing economy and put a lid on the growing
local debt. Their preference went to a local boy who was
already well known for his literary talent (he was the
author of a nationally acclaimed and award-winning novel
while he was still a student at the prestigious
Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo), as a civic-movement
campaigner, as an active volunteer who helped the
victims of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, and as a leading
organizer of a major group that unsuccessfully opposed
the construction of Kobe Airport on reclaimed land in
Kobe Bay.
Typically, the "iron triangle"
comprising politicians, bureaucrats and business groups
dominates regional politics as strongly as these sectors
do national-level politics. Nagano operated on this
model for most of the postwar period. In view of its
history and strong support from the established
political parties and most local business groups,
Ikeda's victory was a foregone conclusion. But many
Nagano voters were sick and tired of the old-style
politics, politics that mirrored Nagatacho - a district
in Tokyo where the national parliament and the
headquarters of the main political parties are located -
in which politicians act in the interest of the
iron-triangle members rather than serving the interests
of those they represent.
Tanaka symbolized a new
political order. He changed the language of political
discourse in Nagano, from that of central connections
necessary for subsidies and cozy relations with business
to transparency, accountability and service.
However, Japan's political culture is not yet
ripe for new types of political discourse - not regional
Japan, in any case. Tanaka's ways of running prefectural
administration and his policy preferences soon became
unpopular both with Nagano's prefectural bureaucracy and
its assembly members. His relationship with the assembly
and the bureaucracy soured rapidly. But one issue that
became the most potent source of division between Tanaka
and his opponents and ultimately politically unpalatable
was his declaration early last year of "no more dams".
Despite Tanaka's publicly declared anti-dam policy, the
prefectural assembly demanded that the budget for dam
projects be revived. Disregarding the assembly's call,
Tanaka unilaterally canceled both the Asakawa and
Shimosuwa dam projects this June.
In their
no-confidence motion against Tanaka in July, assembly
members called him a "self-righteous and childish"
politician who "only tries to realize his ideas" rather
than to promote citizens' welfare. This was only the
second time in the postwar history of local government
that a chief executive was removed by a vote of
no-confidence. The first time it happened was in 1976
when the Gifu governor was removed on an alleged bribery
charge.
While Tanaka's electoral victory is good
news for other reform-oriented popularly elected and
independent-minded governors, it is bad news for the
conservative and old-style politicians who still rely on
traditional ways of doing politics. Tokushima prefecture
on Shikoku Island is one such example, where residents
have long opposed a dam project. A former Construction
Ministry official and prefectural governor of Tokushima
who supported the dam project had to resign his position
this year over his involvement in some serious corrupt
practices. Tokushima voters replaced him with a governor
who clearly opposes the dam project. However, many of
the assembly members of Tokushima still support the dam
plan and they traveled to Nagano to show their
solidarity with their pro-dam counterparts in the Nagano
assembly.
Tanaka faces the same assembly members
who ousted him in July and can theoretically oust him
again, but it is highly unlikely that the anti-dam
assembly members would behave irresponsibly again. They
just can't ignore the fact that the governor enjoys
popular support in the prefecture. It is, however, also
essential that while not compromising his policy
orientation for which he has now received fresh mandate,
Tanaka must make efforts to work with the bureaucracy
and the assembly by engaging them rather than
confronting them. Tanaka has a difficult task of
creating a new political culture, not only in terms of
introducing innovative ideas and policies but also in
terms of creating conditions for managing a difficult
relationship between the local chief executive,
bureaucrats and elected politicians who may have
different policy ideas and preferences.
The
emerging new culture of accountability and transparency
and serving the interest of the local community is not a
totally unknown phenomenon in Japan. Neither is the
confrontation with assembly members that the new breed
of local chief executives face today. In the late 1960s
and 1970s, when progressive governors and mayors
replaced their conservative predecessors in many local
areas, they faced similar challenges. Despite strong
political opposition from both the powerful national
government and conservative assemblies, progressive
local chief executives introduced a range of innovative
policies. They were able to do so because their politics
and policy received strong endorsement from the majority
of voters.
With good political and policy
advice, Tanaka should be able to change the old and
long-prevailing political culture of Nagano and set a
new agenda in regional politics. Many national and
international eyes will be fixed on Tanaka to see
whether he succeeds in his efforts and can provide
leadership to change regional politics. If he does, he
will be regarded as a pioneer among a handful of those
reformist governors who for some time have raised the
slogan of "A Japan that will change from regions". Are
Japan's leaders, and indeed its people, ready for such a
"revolution"?
Purnendra Jain is a
professor in the Center for Asian Studies at Australia's
Adelaide University.
(©2002 Asia Times
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