Japan's top pension scofflaw
resigns By Richard Hanson
TOKYO - Japan's widening scandal over officials
not paying into their pension funds has claimed its
seventh - and highest - cabinet minister. It won't bring
down the government, but it won't help the governing
party in the crucial Upper House parliamentary polls in
July.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's
government lost its best voice Friday morning when Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, in his last bombshell
announcement, calmly told reporters that he was stepping
down from the post he held for a record three years
under two prime ministers.
Fukuda, 67, said was
taking responsibility for "damaging public trust in
politics", after admitting earlier that he had failed -
along with a number of his fellow politicians - in the
past to pay his national-pension premiums. Including
Fukuda, in the past week or so seven cabinet members,
and the leader of the main opposition party, have
admitted they neglected to pay pension premiums for
certain periods.
Fukuda admitted last week that
he failed to pay government pension premiums for a total
of 37 months from February 1990 to September 1992, and
from August to December of 1995.
The chief
cabinet secretary's resignation will by no means bring
down the government, even though the prime minister just
recently called Fukuda "indispensable" in his work. But
it does signal a significant change in altering the
political landscape as Koizumi prepares for a crucial
national Upper House election two months from now on
Sunday, July 12.
Suddenly, the most prominent
figure in the spreading scandal among politicians who
failed to pay their mandatory pension bills has
apologized with more than just words. Koizumi, a
personal model of fiscal probity in a world of dirty
money, has regained some degree of control over the
scandal, thanks to Yasuo Fukuda, close factional and
personal allies for three decades.
This means
one fewer of the seven members of his 17-member cabinet
who admit to having shirked their pension payments.
They include, on the side of the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP), a phalanx of heavyweights: the
minister of economy and banking (a non-elected cabinet
minister, Heizo Takenaka); the finance minister (a young
and ambitious Sadakazu Tanigaki); the minister of
economy, trade and industry (a forceful Shoichi
Nakagawa); and the minister of public management, home
affairs, posts and telecommunications (a jealous Koizumi
rival Taro Aso). On the second tier of the cabinet,
there are the Defense Agency director general Shigeru
Ishiba, who runs the day-to-day business of troops in
Iraq, and the minister in charge of Okinawa and Northern
Territory affairs, Toshimitsu Motegi. Both of these
ministers have gone out their way to say they will not
resign over the pension problem.
With Fukuda's
departure, more than ever they serve at the pleasure of
the prime minister. The only cabinet member who claims
to have received the direct support of Koizumi is
economy czar Takenaka (but then, the nicely growing
economy is a bright spot for the government).
Who is in deepest trouble?
After
Fukuda's call for a return to "trust of the nation",
that has to be the leader of the opposition Democratic
Party of Japan (DJP), Naoto Kan, who figured prominently
on the list of non-pension payers, though it was not an
intentional lapse. Kan has been preparing furiously for
the Upper House election in July when he wants his party
to show a credible face to the public.
Kan's DPJ
needs to make a strong showing after a surprisingly
strong debut as a genuine "national" opposition party
last November in the general election for the powerful
Lower House of the Diet (parliament). It remains to be
seen whether his enemies in the DPJ take advantage of
his weakness.
The LDP's Prime Minister Koizumi
can take little comfort in the problems of his enemies
when his own party members are capable of creating chaos
on their own. One factor that has yet to be reckoned
with is the reaction of the public at large to the
problems that the pension scandal has highlighted - very
publicly.
On the pension reform bills, the
government and opposition parties have been making some
progress in breaking an impasse over the content of the
bills. If all goes well, they will be passed next
Tuesday in the Lower House. To this, the outgoing Chief
Cabinet Secretary Fukuda can take some measure of
credit. He stuck to the negotiations to the very end,
and then resigned.
The contending parties agreed
to legislation that will mention - only mention - the
idea of unifying the complicated array of public-funded
pension systems. These include national and employee
pensions. Don't hold your breath for speedy action. The
understanding is to have a target date of 2007 for
conclusions on the major issues.
That time frame
is pretty well suited to Koizumi's future in politics.
Last month, he entered his fourth year in office. He
reckons three more years in office to rank among the
longest-serving prime ministers since World War II. In
April, Fukuda matched a record as the longest-serving
chief cabinet secretary.
Meanwhile, Koizumi made
another controversial proposal on Wednesday, saying a
privileged pension system for lawmakers should be
abolished by introducing and passing a bill during the
current Diet session ending on June 16. Koizumi wants to
abolish the system to persuade Japanese voters to accept
the pending pension reform package that would force them
to pay higher premiums while receiving fewer benefits,
political pundits say.
True to form, the
opposition parties boycotted deliberations on the
pension reform package to protest what they say is
Koizumi's refusal to answer questions on pension reform
at a plenary session of the Lower House last week.
As soon as Fukuda told the prime minister,
Koizumi asked a relatively new face to replace him - the
deputy chief cabinet secretary, Hiroyuki Hosoda, 60, a
five-time elected, second-generation lawmaker from
Shimane prefecture. Hosoda is a graduate of Tokyo
University and was a civil servant in the now-defunct
ministry of international trade and industry in 1986,
when he quit to serve as secretary to his father, a
former transport minister. He was first elected to the
Lower House in 1990. Koizumi named him state minister in
charge of science and technology, Okinawan affairs and
issues involving the Northern Territories - before
appointing him to the deputy chief cabinet post last
year in a cabinet change. He is a member of the LDP
faction run by former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, the
same as the outgoing Fukuda.
All observers seem
to agree that Fukuda has played pivotal roles in the
Koizumi cabinet since its launch in April 2001. His
daily presence will be missed. Just how major a major
blow it was to the Koizumi government is hard to judge.
Fukuda is a loyal member of the party of former prime
minister Mori. This is the faction founded by his late
father, former prime minister Takeo Fukuda. It is also
the faction that Koizumi joined in the 1970s at the
start of his parliamentary career.
Fukuda is no
doubt sincere about the reasons for quitting in this
scandal. Someone has to behave properly. Fukuda is a
proper as any LDP politician alive. He may also have his
own political agenda if Koizumi falters. At age 67, he
is not young but he has proved his skills and judgment
in these past three years.
That is more than
many politicians in Japan can claim.
At a press
conference given after Friday's regular cabinet meeting,
Fukuda acknowledged there was some bungling in the way
he had dealt with the scandal. He also showed remorse
for his actions.
"As chief cabinet spokesman and
the head of the cabinet secretariat that coordinated the
formulation of the pension reform bill, I would like to
apologize to the people for increasing their distrust of
politics."
What more dramatic words can a chief
cabinet secretary say when leaving center stage?
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