Japan


	April 30, 2002	atimes.com

Japan

The land of rising political distrust
By Purnendra Jain

The results of the two weekend parliamentary by-elections and one gubernatorial election in Japan are another set of bad news for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

In the by-elections, although in Wakayama the LDP-backed Masatoshi Ishida won a closely contested election, in Niigata voters elected the 35-year-old opposition-backed candidate, Takahiro Kuroiwa. And, in the "conservative kingdom" of Tokushima, Tadashi Ota, backed by the opposition Democratic Party, the Japan Communist Party and Social Democratic Party, defeated his nearest gubernatorial rival Junko Kawauchi, a de facto LDP candidate.

These elections were held because of the death of the two LDP parliamentarians occupying Niigata's Upper House and Wakayama's Lower House seats and to fill the position of governor in Tokushima prefecture on Shikoku Island vacated by the disgraced former governor, Toshio Endo, who was indicted and arrested in connection with a bribery scandal. The "two losses and one win" outcome is certainly a major setback for the LDP, which previously held all three positions.

Cases of bribery, scandals, unethical political practices, resignations and apologies offered by politicians for their immoral behavior have been the highlight of Japanese politics in recent months. These cases reveal that the current-generation politicians in Japan are as much prone to corrupt practices as their predecessors were in the early postwar period. Efforts to make Japanese politics clean and transparent have bore few fruits.

Last year around this time, when Koizumi took the political helm in Japan, people supported his reform agenda enthusiastically in the hope that under his leadership Japan would reverse its economic downturn and make its politics and policy processes transparent. It was also expected that the tight nexus between the LDP and influential interest groups would loosen up leading to political and economic structural reform. Koizumi indeed promised all these. People trusted him and he became the most popular postwar prime minister in Japan with popular his support rate soaring above 80 percent.

But one year is a long time in politics. The prevailing political mood in Japan is one of pessimism. Not only Koizumi's own approval ratings been halved, but political distrust is growing at all level. And it is not difficult to understand why.

In recent months, many high-profile politicians who held senior party and official positions have had to resign their positions under the suspicion of unethical political practices. Three high-profile politicians - two of them prospective prime ministers - have appeared as unsworn witnesses before the Lower House Budget Committee of the national parliament under bright camera lights.

In January, Muneo Suzuki, a high-ranking LDP politician and former minister, resigned his position after allegations that he had used his political influence to secure contracts for companies in his Hokkaido electoral constituency to build facilities in Russia, using Japan's foreign aid money.

Once dubbed the LDP's prince, Koichi Kato, a prospective prime minister and one of the rising young trio of YKK (Taku Yamasaki, the current LDP secretary general, Koizumi, and Kato) resigned his parliamentary seat earlier this month due to his involvement in political scandals. The failed political coup that he mounted against prime minister Yoshiro Mori in late 2000 had already alienated him from some of the most powerful LDP politicians. The discovery that his secretary had evaded billions of yen in tax and that Kato himself had received close to 100 million yen from his fundraising organizations to cover his living expenses gave enough ammunition in the hands of his political opponents to push Kato into political obscurity.

It was then the turn of a young, high-profile future prime minister and media darling, a female politician from the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), Kiyomi Tsujimoto. She used to appear on almost all current-affairs television programs and was scathing in her remarks when politicians such as Suzuki were questioned over their corrupt practices. Last month, however, a media leak suggested that she herself had misappropriated state funds provided to pay for her policy secretary. Instead of using the funds for her secretary's salary, she was using the money to cover other expenses. She first admitted doing it because a senior party colleague had advised her that diversion of salaries was standard practice, but in her testimony before parliament last week she changed her version and said it was her decision alone. Even before she appeared before the committee, she had resigned her parliamentary position but continues to be an SDP member.

The issue of misappropriation of state funds has figured prominently and some reports suggest that the practice of diverting state funds is indeed a prevailing norm. Former foreign minister Makiko Tanaka, who was dumped by Koizumi for her "diplomatic blunders", is also under pressure to explain the alleged misuse of salaries for her policy secretary. Now demand is gaining momentum that Tanaka should also testify before parliament.

Further disgrace to the party and the most sacred institution of parliamentary democracy was brought by the president of the House of Councilors, Yutaka Inoue, who is accused of receiving a 60 million yen bribe from a construction company involved in a similar scandal. Inoue resigned his position but has not given a sufficient explanation.

Japanese politicians involved in such serious unethical paractices get away with just a slap on their wrist.

As a result, distrust of the LDP and other major political parties is rising rapidly. In March, at the mayoral election in Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city, an independent candidate unexpectedly defeated his rival who was supported by the LDP and its coalition partners. In early April, the LDP gubernatorial candidate in Kyoto defeated his rival Communist Party-supported candidate by just a whisker.

Although Koizumi still enjoys about 40 percent popular support, which is double that of his predecessor Mori's in his first year, it appears that his grip on power is slipping fast. Instead of pressing ahead with his reform agenda, he has threatened to destroy his own party if the LDP tries to pull the rug out from under him.

Given the state of current political affairs in Japan, it is likely that a major realignment of party politics might occur and one person who might lead this agenda is the governor of Tokyo, the right-wing Shintaro Ishihara. While Koizumi's popularity is on the slippery slide, Ishihara enjoys strong popular support. Ishihara is a former LDP parliamentarian who served twice as minister and was elected to his current position three years ago as an independent candidate.

Japanese politics once again is standing at a crossroads, similar to what it faced in the early 1990s. If Koizumi fails to get his act together and put his own house in order, his government is in imminent danger of collapse leading to political confusion and chaos. Which way Japan's politics will turn is difficult to predict.

Purnendra Jain is a professor at Adelaide University's Center for Asian Studies and is currently a visiting scholar at Tokyo's Meiji University.

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