Shinzo Abe's First 100 Days: Heizo Takenaka

Historic Tasks Being Asked of the Abe Administration.

Next I’d like to point out the historic tasks that are being asked of the Abe administration. The more I ponder it, the more I think that, in many ways, the Abe administration has a rather similar mission to that of the Blair administration in England.

One of these is educational reform. Another is the escape from “British sickness” and creation of a strong economy – in particular, the “rising tide policy”. In addition, Britain has also pushed policies to strengthen soft powers as well. In terms of Japan, this would be equivalent to the Asian Gateway Initiative. This shows that the issues the Abe administration is attempting to deal with overlap greatly with those of the Blair administration.

In this historic role, I would like to see the Abe administration strengthen economic growth, increase soft power, and tackle education, the very power of the people and foundation upon which these developments all depend. This means that since the start of the Abe administration, those buds are all starting to sprout. If you ask whether the path to fruition of these buds has been sufficiently paved though, I would say that happens from here on forward.

We understand that, as Mr. Abe has stated from the beginning, the intent is there to promote strengthened economic growth. The problem, however, is that an agenda to achieve this has not been established. There isn’t anyone opposed to even the idea of “open and innovation” for the sake of economic growth. So, what should be done? Clearly an agenda is being called for.

Also with education reform, a 17-person committee is too large. With such a large committee, eventually it becomes necessary for government officials to step in and bring things to a conclusion. A 5 or 6 member committee would be fine. In addition, as it stands currently, from start to finish the Education Rebuilding Council revolves around discussions of the present situation. I would like to see them discuss from a more long-term perspective what kind of human resources need to be trained and what is needed for the country of Japan to survive as a global player.

Politicians are currently preoccupied with talk of bullying problems, mental issues, and other current matters. Talk of current issues is important and greatly appreciated, but there is no meaning to having the Education Rebuilding Council unless we can look past these things.

As far as the Asia Gateway Initiative is concerned, regardless of what the Prime Minister said in his policy position speech at the end of September last year, there has hardly been any movement whatsoever on the matter. I think it’s good that Mr. Abe stated this plan again in his policy speech the other day, saying that they would form a plan by May. The problem is the strategy lies in the details, so it’s a matter of whether or not we can keep the bureaucrats from taking hold of the open seams so they can’t take over. It is important in a growth strategy that an agenda is firmly established, and that in working out the details to that end all the functions of the control tower are firmly within possession of the administration.

The cabinet reached a decision on a budget plan the day before the National Diet. If you read objectively based on the numbers presented in the plan, there is no need to raise consumption tax in order to restore the primary balance in the beginning of the 2010’s. I think this is something that should be clarified. In reality, however, it seems the government has started to say this and then suddenly clammed up. However, surely by saying this it would demonstrate an effort to avoid arguments in the National Diet.

To put things in economic terms, it is an issue of maximizing earnings or minimizing expenses. What I’d really like to see is for the advisory council to try their best to maximize earnings in their reforms. To reach this end, it will be necessary to haggle and debate. These debates will be of the utmost importance and will have two results.

The first is that the right argument will become clear in the course of the debates and the path to the appropriate policy will become visible. The second thing, depending on the debates, is public support of the reforming administration. The merits of debating are extremely important both politically and economically. As such, it would be great if there were debate about maximizing earnings, but as it stands now, in an attempt to avoid debate, that is to say minimize expenses, they are refraining form making any clear statements.

Recently, the number of proposal papers produced by civilian members of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy and distributed are decreasing. Released proposal papers generate debate, but it looks like there is a movement to avoid that at this time.

Translator: DOUG DURGEE

Read The Japanese Version