Great Regret

They performed a cheap opera for begging their lives. The Democratic Party of Japan held “a great regret meeting” on Saturday. The leaders of former DPJ administration kept on apologizing about their wrong handling of crucial events. What they regretted, however, was not what they had done, but how. Although moderate liberal power is needed to be an alternative to a revisionist regime based on excessive nationalism, it is unlikely for DPJ to take it over again unless the leaders really regret themselves to the extent of throwing their obsolete minds away.

They regretted how they handled the Great Northeast Japan Earthquake, the biggest event in their administration. “I regret to have spent a long time to take advantage of SPEEDI,” told then Prime Minister, Naoto Kan. He regretted his hesitation on using data of System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information. “I am remorseful for not being able to integrate information,” followed Yukio Edano, the Chief Cabinet Secretary in Kan cabinet.

Publishing the information of SPEEDI delayed because of reluctance of bureaucrats who underestimated public rationality in emergency. But, information was also coming from other countries including the United States. The true reason Kan could not provide people in Fukushima with necessary information was his distrust of America, based on his resentment against US as a social activist. Even as a leader who was responsible for life and property of people, he could not abandon his own ideology. That was the fatal mistake DPJ administration committed.

They also regretted the handling of Futenma issue. Their conclusion was they needed to persuade people for their wrong decision to relocate the base outside Okinawa as soon as they realized it. But, the wrong decision they made was listing the removal of the base on their campaign promise in the general election in 2009. That also stemmed from their skepticism against Japan-US alliance. They also regret the wrong timing of the introduction of consumption tax hike. It was not about the timing, but about their ideology of big government.

It is obvious that they need to get rid of that old idea, if they want to rebuild the party. Too afraid of defeat at next election, DPJ is still, or ever more, dependant on the labor unions, which leaders are holding old Marxist ideology of recognizing themselves as vanguards of the proletariat. Labor unions do not represent the majority of workers, because they exploited workers by posing dues for incompetent leadership. To proceed on the main street of post-war democracy in Japan, DPJ has to say goodbye to the negative heritage of the twentieth century.