Need for mandate
For Personal Use Only
Japan and the rest of the world have seen two Japanese prime ministers in a row suddenly throw in the towel without giving convincing reasons for doing so. Mr. Shinzo Abe announced his resignation Sept. 12, 2007, and Mr. Yasuo Fukuda on Sept. 1. The manner in which the two prime ministers decided to step down after less than a year in power was most unusual and irresponsible. It is unavoidable for people to get the impression that politicians these days make light of the duties and position of prime minister and to develop a distrust of politics in general. Despite differences in their political ideology and orientation, both Mr. Abe and Mr. Fukuda had one thing in common: Both lacked a mandate based on victories in general elections. They had merely inherited the big victory from former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the September 2005 general elections, fought on the single issue of privatizing the nation’s postal service.
This win enabled the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito to hold a two-thirds majority in the Lower House. In the case of Mr. Abe, he did not immediately resign, although the ruling coalition lost a majority in the Upper House in a July 2007 election. Mr. Abe and Mr. Fukuda had another thing in common: Both decided to resign only about a month after reshuffling their Cabinet. For both, the poor prospects for passing a bill to extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s mission in the Indian Ocean to refuel naval ships of the United States and other countries engaged in antiterrorism operations was one of the reasons that prompted them to resign. It is very likely that Mr. Fukuda succumbed to pressure from opinions within the LDP and Komeito that the two parties would not be able to put up a good fight in coming general elections if Mr. Fukuda continued as prime minister since he was suffering from low approval ratings. He also might have had a hard time handling demands from Komeito. He had to swallow Komeito’s demands for opening the extraordinary Diet session in mid-September, instead of late August as he wanted, and for including a fixed-amount deduction from income tax paid by each household in the government’s economic stimulus package. With Mr. Fukuda’s announcement to resign, a race has started in the LDP to select its new president. At present, former Foreign Minister and current LDP Secretary General Taro Aso is regarded as a strong candidate. Some LDP members reportedly cite a few other possibilities, including former Defense Minister Ms. Yuriko Koike. The LDP presidential election will be held Sept. 22 Whoever may become the next LDP leader, and consequently prime minister, the fact remains that the new prime minister does not have a mandate based on a victory in general elections. That a third consecutive prime minister will lack a mandate derived from people’s direct votes goes against the principle of democracy. The next prime minister should dissolve the Lower House at an early date and hold general elections to boost national confidence in the political process. The next prime minister and LDP leaders should realize that postponement of the next general elections would demonstrate that the party’s governing ability is in decline. Although the way in which Mr. Fukuda announced his resignation left a lot to be desired, it is not that he was without achievements. His Cabinet decided to free up the use of revenues from road-related taxes from fiscal 2009. As chair of the summit of the Group of Eight leaders in July in Hokkaido, he succeeded in having the G-8 leaders consider adopting the goal of achieving at least 50 percent reductions in global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. He also put the Japan-China relations on an amicable path, at least on the surface. His ascendancy to the premiership itself put a break on a move to revise the war-renouncing Constitution, as his predecessor Mr. Abe had sought to do, and on a tendency to heighten nationalism and hawkishness in security matters, also marks of Mr. Abe. To help change the traditional orientation of economic policies, Mr. Fukuda called for a shift from the producer-first principle to a principle that gives priority to citizens. A concrete form of this philosophy is his call to establish a Consumer Agency. He also tried to alleviate people’s worries about pensions, medical services and employment. It is unfortunate that he leaves the scene without accomplishing results in these matters. In his news conference announcing his resignation, he blamed the divided Diet for causing trouble for executing policy measures. But he should have realized that it was his job as prime minister to negotiate with the opposition and strike a compromise with perseverance and tenacity. Unfortunately, he lacked or ran out of guts and energy to use the power and assets he had as LDP president and prime minister to carry out his agenda against the head winds from a split Diet.
Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Other