[talk] How Can the Policymaking Function of Political Parties and National Diet Members be Enhanced?

Yutaka Matsuzaki: Secretary for Policy &Legislative Affairs Okiharu Yasuoka, House of Representatives, LDP
Shigeru Satake: Secretary of Sayuri Kamata, House of Representatives member
Hideki togasaka: Assistant General Manager of the Policy Research Committee of the Democratic Party of Japan
Takaaki Sasaki: Research Fellow of the Tokyo Foundation
Anonymous A: Member of the ruling party involved in policymaking

While the news reports on the series of scandals starting from Muneo Suzuki and Kiyomi Tsujimoto tend to be somewhat theatrical in nature, there is concern that substantial discussion about government-paid secretaries could be neglected. In order to avoid this, issues such as the link between politics and money, the government-paid secretary system that had been introduced for policymaking, or the policymaking function of political parties must all be discussed separately."
On the other hand, a strong tendency exists among politicians to regard the government-paid secretary system, which was originally aimed at enhancing the policymaking function, as a personnel cost supplementation from the government, as with political subsidies. Because manpower is certainly needed, there is also an increasing demand for introducing a "pool system," which is a system in which the Diet member office manages the salaries of government-paid secretaries as a whole and reallocates them among all the secretaries. Regarding the issue of this pool system, a contrary opinion was given from a participating member of the discussion: "It is reasonable if one demands a public system for subsidizing the personnel cost for employing private secretaries. However, government-paid secretaries are special position government employees, with an established wage system. Therefore, the introduction of pool system should not be a subject of discussion."

The fundamental problem regarding government-paid secretaries is that "there is no proper legal system." As long as they are special position government employees, "there should be clear delineation as to their rights and duties, or prohibited matters." Participants insisted that one must discuss the ideal situation regarding government-paid secretaries based on these circumstances.

These institutional problems also have an impact on management of Diet member offices and political parties. The treatment of costs of the Diet members or the office of Diet members are not put in a statutory form, and are defined customarily as public costs or private costs. Even the legal position of political parties is not clearly stated in the Constitution, so they are treated as voluntary organizations. Although an enormous amount is paid from the national treasury as political subsidies to these voluntary organizations, there is not even a duty to disclose the accounting information for these organizations.

These institutional problems must first be settled. Then, a mechanism to absorb the results of active discussion among the Diet members about the policies of the political parties is required.