Iron Triangle Revives

Ministry for Internal Affairs and Communications released the balance of political funding of each party in the year of 2014. The amount of money that Liberal Democratic Party sucked up from industries and organizations exceeded ¥2.2 billion, regaining the level before it had handed administration over Democratic Party of Japan in 2009. It is easily supposed that a part of interest earned through the economic policy by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to LDP. This is an old connection between party and industry, which has been criticized as collusion.

LDP received ¥1.4 billion of political donation from industries and organizations in 2013, which marked great increase by 42% from the previous year. That was an effusion of expectation to Abe administration getting started in the end of 2012. The amount swelled in 2014, mainly due to reopening of political donation by Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, which was consisted with big names in Japanese business scene. Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara asked 1,300 of its member companies to restart the donation in September 2014.

It is not unusual for LDP leaders to visit headquarters of major companies to ask donation with request of actual amount. According to a report of Asahi Shimbun, Japan Federation of Construction Contractors received two letters every February, one of which was the list of policy achievement with the name of LDP President Abe. Another was request of donation from National Political Association, a political action committee of LDP, with actual amount of money. It should be a hard decision for a major business entity to dismiss that request.

Abenomics has been dubbed as an economic policy package for Japanese major corporations, leaving midsize and small businesses behind. Based on their donation, Keidanren raises voice requiring lower corporation tax rate. LDP is stabilizing its financial basis with donation from business community. With close relationship between LDP and bureaucrats, the iron triangle of politics, bureaucracy and business is reviving.

With decline of DPJ, clean politics sounds obsolete. While total income of LDP was ¥23.9 billion last year, DPJ reduced to ¥7.7 billion with their policy not to receive donation from corporation or business organization. Japan Communist Party manages its finance with sales of newspaper, not depending on donation or subsidy from national budget. Politics independent from money is still hard to achieve.

Urgent Measures for Abenomics

An experts’ committee for Shinzo Abe administration called National Convention decided “urgent measures” to promote new three arrows for Abenomics on Thursday. New policy goals included raising minimum wage by annual 3% or hourly wage to ¥1,000 in national average. However, those policy remained to be general distribution of wealth, which had been said to be ineffective for economic growth, as seen in ¥30 thousand benefit for every person. The measures are interpreted as tools to raise popularity of Abe administration for coming national election next summer.

The new three arrows include raising gross domestic products to ¥600 trillion, hopeful birth rate of 1.8 for each couple, and no job loss caused by taking care of the elderly. In the urgent measures, the ¥30 thousand benefit was to encourage low-income families for active consumption. To support higher birth rate, the goal of increasing nurseries in the end of FY 2017 thought to be raised from current 400 thousands to 500 thousands. To decrease 100 thousands of workers leaving job to take care of their old father or mother, nursery facilities or home-visiting service was expected to be increased from current 380 thousands to 500 thousands.

Abe looked serious in implementing his political promise to achieve ¥600 trillion of GDP. “This is a proposal for new socio-economic system to produce positive circulation of growth and distribution,” told Abe in the meeting of National Convention. The policies would be reflected in supplemental budget of FY 2015 or yearly budget of 2016. The administration is going to deliver mid- or long-term plan for post 2020 next spring.

This kind of body for discussion to implement policies is usually controlled by policy experts in Japanese bureaucracy. That was because those new policies did not go beyond the bureaucratic concept of distributing national wealth. Bureaucrats hate abolishing former policies they had made and try hard to maintain old plan. Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare once set a goal of nursery service for the elderly on 340 thousands by increasing nurseries with special care or overnight stay for nursery staffs. Then, the ministry included 24-hour visiting nursery to raise the goal to 380 thousands. Now they added houses with welfare service for the elderly to nursery facility. To achieve new goal, they are simply manipulating the definition of nursery service.

That is why it is unclear whether those policies really work. One thing clear is Abe has been devoted to achieve two-third majority in the election of House of Councillors next summer. It is likely that the leaders of Abe administration required the ministries to squeeze popular policies to appeal the effort for people’s life. But, the bureaucratic method is apparently obsolete.

Still in State of Unconstitutional

The judicial branch questioned the status of lawmakers again. The Supreme Court sentenced on Wednesday that the election of House of Representatives in last December had been done in a state of unconstitutional, not going to the extent of making it void. The court determined that the disparity in value of each vote was at the level of intolerable. While the legislative branch was urged for immediate adjustment of election system, parties are still lagging behind in fundamental reform.

In the election last December, the number of voters in 4th District of Chiba was 2.30 times greater than that in 3rd District of Kochi. The Supreme Court estimated that the distribution of constituency had been unacceptable to guarantee equal value of one vote.

The Court decided in 2011 that the value gap between votes needed to be contained within two times at least and the system of proportional constituency after distributing one seat to each prefecture in the election of the House of Representatives should be abolished. In the last election, number of voters was greater over two times than in 3rd District of Kochi in 13 districts. The Court concluded that negative aspect of prior distribution of one vote to each prefecture had not actually been removed.

Two judges out of the fourteen added their opinion that last election had to be nullified. “Distortion in election system is critical. Ignorance of judicial power for constitutional review by the Diet is significant,” told Judge Masaharu Ohashi, requiring nullification when 6 months passed from the sentence of the Supreme Court. “We cannot keep on sentencing without nullification, if elections would be repeated with this situation,” told Judge Michiyoshi Kiuchi, warning the lawmakers. Meanwhile, one Judge decided that the election was constitutional, positively assessing the effort for reforming election system.

In the responsibility cabinet system in Japan, unconstitutionality of election directly leads to legitimacy of Cabinet and Prime Minister. Liberal Democratic Party led by Shinzo Abe achieved sweeping victory in the election last December. The Supreme Court literally denied the legal basis of Abe administration. There is an opinion among lawyers that all policies delivered from unconstitutional administration should be void.

A committee by legal experts launched by the House of Representatives has been discussing appropriate election system and going to submit their conclusion early next year. However, it is unclear whether all party will abide by the recommendation of the committee. While LDP considers partial reform of the election system, Japan Communist Party demands abolition of single-seat constituency system. The Diet does not seem to have enough power to regulate the difference of opinion.

Trivial Discussion over Tax Relief

Two leading parties, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, confronted each other over consumption tax relief. Representing the interest of Ministry of Finance, LDP insisted on saving the income of national budget as much as possible. Komeito demanded consumption tax rate of daily foods to be as broad as possible, in order to maintain political support from low-income families. Discussion over consumption tax hike in 2017 is getting too trivial to address financial crisis brought by huge amount of national debt, mainly accumulated by economic policy of past LDP administrations.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the leaders of LDP to discuss consumption tax relief from a viewpoint of “achieving stable resource within the framework of integrated reform of social security and tax.” LDP Secretary General, Sadakazu Tanigaki, interpreted Abe’s words as containing the amount of fiscal resource for tax relief within ¥400 billion, which would be secured by the integrated reform. In Tanigaki’s concept, the tax relief will be limited to fresh vegetable, fish and meat, including cut vegetable, sashimi or minced meat.

Komeito strongly opposed Tanigaki, requiring broader support for the life of low-income families. Adding to fresh foods, Komeito demanded fax relief on processed foods including milk, noodles, juice or cake. Komeito interpreted Abe’s order not limiting the resource with actual amount of money. “It should be determined with comprehensive view over national budget,” told President of Komeito, Natsuo Yamaguchi, fundamentally opposing Abe’s policy of limiting resource for tax relief. Yamaguchi requested to include the food in restaurants and drinks without alcohol.

In spite of having membership of LDP, Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, supported the appeal from Komeito. “I did not understand the order of Prime Minister as limited within the integrated reform. I don’t think he offered a concrete idea,” told Suga in his press conference. Hoping firm support from Komeito in the election of House of Councillors next summer, Suga stood by Komeito, rather than uncontrollable MOF.

The discussion has been about whether the national budget can spend ¥400 billion or not. Meanwhile, the total amount of national debt of Japan is ¥1 quadrillion. While consumption tax rate had to be reducing that huge amount of debt, Japanese politics is focusing on scooping votes from low-income people or securing cooperation from friend party in the election. They have to discuss how to reduce governmental spending, sustainable economic growth not dependent on unusually ambitious economic policies or trickling down the profit accumulated in the budget of major corporations.

Destruction of Evidence

New security legislation laid by Shinzo Abe administration in September was apparent violation of Constitution of Japan, because Cabinet Legislation Bureau had been interpreting the Constitution that exercising collective self-defense right could not be tolerated. Weakening legal stability, the bureau changed its attitude and endorsed new security legislation as constitutional. Everyone had a question on what the reason was and how they discussed it. The bureau left no record about their discussion. If it were the matter of crime, the bureaucrats are guilty for destruction of evidence.

Asahi Shimbun requested CLB to disclose the record related to the decision of new security legislation made in July last year. Although the request was submitted based on Information Disclosure Law, CLB presented only three documents. They were a document about Abe’s consultative committee for the legislation, record about meeting between leading Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito and approval of CLB to answer a question from National Security Bureau that CLB had no opinion about the cabinet decision on exercising collective self-defense. No other documents were disclosed.

The Chief of CLB, Yusuke Yokobatake, admitted that the bureau had a number of discussions over the issue. “In the process of discussion on this issue, we had a various discussion in our bureau,” told Yokobatake in a committee of House of Councillors this June. CLB could not say that they had not discussed the issue. It is likely that they were hiding the truth or simply making a lie.

According to a former officer of the bureau, they sometimes do not leave a record on the issues related to interpretation of constitution. Public Records Management Act demands bureaucrats to leave official record to verify decisions of the executive branch or achievement of policies, except trivial issues. It is obvious that reinterpreting the Constitution is not categorized as a “trivial issue.” CLB has to be suspected as violating the law.

Another possibility is that the constitutional reinterpretation has overwhelmingly been made by Yokobatake alone. Yokobatake was one of the members of undisclosed community for discussing the issue, which members included the leaders of leading parties and bureaucrats on the issue of constitutional interpretation or national security. Discussion over the reinterpretation might mainly be made in that small meeting out of ordinary legal structure in the Cabinet. It is well known that Japanese bureaucrats do anything wrong without public watch.

Accommodation in Short

Fundamentally different from Europe, Asian people have been going to Japan. They are not refugees, but travelers. With unprecedented popularity of travel to Japan, one serious problem is scarcity of accommodation facilities. Hotels in Japan have mostly been filled with foreign travelers and room price is showing rocket high. Some people started hotel business, taking advantage of empty rooms in urban area. Government of Japan reluctantly embarked on deregulation on hotel business.

Encouraged by increase of income brought by rapid economic growth in Asia, the number of travelers to Japan has been getting greater these years. They prefer to see old temples in Kyoto, visit cutting edge technology in carmakers around Nagoya and enjoy shopping along the streets in Ginza, Tokyo. It is impossible for a small island country to accept growing number of travelers from populous Asian countries like China, South Korea or Thailand.

Supposedly to appeal Japan’s effort for deregulation, which had been seen by the world as a key to success of Abenomics, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the Ministries to consider establishing exceptional area free from ordinary regulation to accept foreign travelers. Hotel Business Law requires hotels to obtain license and prohibit private business of accommodation. Abe administration is going to make guideline to ease those regulations by next June.

Ota District in Tokyo is the top runner of the deregulation. For Tokyo Olympic 2020, Ota government passed a local law to accept foreign travelers in private houses or rooms in apartment houses. The national government will support Ota with deregulation on facilities for a staying of seven nights or more in private houses. New standard in Ota District will be applied at the beginning of next year.

Western Japan is more interested in business opportunity. Following Ota, Osaka Prefecture decided to introduce the same system. However, the most popular city for travelers, Kyoto, is not enthusiastic for the deregulation. To maintain amenity of travelers, Governor of Kyoto, Keiji Yamada, announced that he would carefully consider safety of travelers and maintenance of environment.

There are cases that foreign travelers staying in private houses caused trouble with neighborhood. Internet brokers for booking rooms in private houses are not regulated by Japanese law. One thing clear is even with those private business, rooms in Japan will be in short at the time of Olympic 2020. Fundamental measures are immediately needed.

Struggle Continues

If Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is not the place to talk about politics, it should be Association of Southeast Asian Nations to do that instead. In the meetings of ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the leaders of major countries tried hard to achieve positive sign from Southeast Asian nations. But, the summit diplomacy resulted in the exchange of criticisms. It should be a litmus test for ASEAN whether it can play active role in dealing with the interest of major powers.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed serious concern on the issue in South China Sea. “I seriously concern the fact that unilateral action of raising tension by changing status quo through major and rapid landfill still exists,” told Abe in the summit meeting of ASEAN+3 on Saturday. It was obvious for the parties that Abe indicated strong opposition against landfill by China in South China Sea. According to the staff of Abe, three leaders supported Abe’s opinion, requiring peaceful and lawful solution.

China is closely watching how Japan deals with the territorial issue in South China Sea. Following criticism against United States being involved in the interest in the region, China was focusing on Abe’s reference on a possibility to support military operation of U.S. around Spratly Islands in South China Sea. “Japan made aggression and occupied South China Sea in World War II. It needs to remember and regret history,” told a spokesman of Chinese government.

Balance inside Southeast Asian nations is changing. Having been neutral on the territorial dispute in South China Sea, Indonesia is getting frustrated with the advance of China to the southern part of the sea. China unilaterally drew the nine-dash line to assert its territorial interest in South China Sea. Economic exclusive zone of Natuna Islands, Indonesia, overlaps the area surrounded by the line. Indonesia changed its policy and sent seven vessels to the islands this month. “Any action inviting tension needed to be finished immediately,” told Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, in the ASEAN Summit.

ASEAN has kept on talking with China about establishing rules for the actions of interested countries with legal bindings. However, China is reluctant on making “rules,” which may restrict its activities in the region. Southeast Asian nations know well about the consequence of supporting United States, which may lead to deterioration of cooperative economic relationship with China. Although ASEAN Summit declared the establishment of ASEAN Community at the end of this year, integration as an independent multi-national community is still full of uncertainty.