Hatoyama tells Diet about the age of brotherhood
The length of the speech (52 minutes) and the lack of concrete guidelines made it somewhat unusual. It highlights the fact that the audience the prime minister was targeting intentionally was the people rather than parliament alone. Hatoyama’s goal was to lay out his political philosophy and the type of society his administration plans to build.
Dawn of a new political era
With the extraordinary electoral victory of his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the ascendancy of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ended. Except for an 11-month hiatus, the LDP was in power since 1955 until 16 September of this year.
The breathtaking development of the economy was the era’s main feature. It turned Japan into the world’s second most important economy. Yet, the price to pay was high: limited democracy, non-activism in world politics, and inadequate concern for people’s welfare.
“Before we talk about big government or small government, we must ensure that the perspectives of the disadvantaged in society and minorities are respected in politics,” the prime minister said at the start of his speech.
He described the new government’s efforts as the “bloodless Heisei Reformation”, a good choice of words for the Japanese since it reminds them of the Meiji era reformation (1868) that transformed Japan into a modern state.
That reform was not bloodless. The Yasukuni Shinto shrine, which has caused diplomatic frictions between Japan and its East Asiaon neighbours, was built towards the end of the 19th century to commemorate the victims of the Meiji era.
Also in Japan it is typical when a new emperor takes over that a name is given to the new era. The Heisei period began in 1989 when the current tenno came to the throne. However, for the prime minister, real reform of this era begins now.
“We are [. . .] working to turn this structure around 180 degrees to a new type of politics. [. . .] Decision-making at government ministries and agencies will not involve bureaucrats [. . .]. Under this new structure, the first thing we must do is a full-scale cleanup of the post-war government.”
The principle of brotherhood
Hatoyama’s Diet speech centred on the notion of “brotherhood”, ‘yu-ai’ in Japanese, i.e. goodness as it combines two Chinese ideograms meaning ‘friendship’ and ‘love’, something greater than mere benevolence and involving interpersonal relations at all levels.
Ichiro Hatoyama (1883-1959) is someone who adopted this notion as his political philosophy. Founder of the LDP, he was the grandfather of the new prime minister.
Taken together the two concepts are rooted in Christianity (both grandfather and grandson are Baptists) and become the cultural and political bases that oppose economic individualism and Socialist massification.
Indeed, “People feel truly fortunate only when someone gives them due recognition and thanks them for what they do,” Hatoyama said.
To illustrate the importance of this idea, he mentioned a woman he met on the campaign trail, who lost her son to suicide a few weeks earlier. Remembering that women “is commendable” because “the sad fact [is] that more than 30,000 people take their lives out of despair every year in Japan,” said an editorial in The Japan Times. Such a tragic situation cannot be left to the private sphere because it is a structural problem. Hence, for the first time, a Japanese government is showing concern about it.
The three pillars of the “Heisei Reformation”
The principle of brotherhood places people at the centre of things. This is where a 180-degree change has occurred in emphasis, with people as the end and the economy as the means.
With this as the backdrop, Hatoyama and his coalition partners appear poised to build their action on three pillars: popular sovereignty, subsidiarity and a culturally plural society
Popular sovereignty
Since he took office on 16 September, Hatoyama has insisted on the fact that by voting the way they did the Japanese have exerted their sovereignty as never before.
Now the new government must consolidate this choice by insisting on transparent governance and putting elected officials in charge in lieu of bureaucrats.
The decision to scrap the 2010 budget up by the previous government because it does not meet the requirements of brotherhood is an example.
Principle of subsidiarity
In his speech to the Diet, the prime minister stressed the ideas of bridge and tie. How people, regions and organizations have expertises that enable them to assume responsibilities and take initiatives that must not be delegated to the state or that it now holds.
This represents a major shift. In previous decades, the focus was on the economy and the ‘iron triangle’ (government, bureaucracy, industry) that gave the country its highly centralised structure. in such a system, centre-periphery links were largely based on patron-client relations during elections.
Under the new dispensation, regions and organisations like NGOs will be able to act with greater autonomy in relationship with the government.
A culturally plural society.
Realising that Japan is no longer ethnically homogenous is another sign that Hatoyama is a man of the times. He and his government are extending the notion of brotherhood to Japan’s indigenous groups like the Ainu or recent arrivals like Brazilian Nikkei, Brazilians of Japanese origin who immigrated to the country of their ancestors.
“We applaud Hatoyama for understanding this tendency and voicing his resolve to create a more tolerant and open society,” Asahi wrote in an editorial.
Criticism and assessment
The desperate attempt to demolish the prime minister’s speech fell to the new LDP leader, Sadakazu Tanigaki, who wasted no time in lashing out at the government for its inexperience and its lack of concrete proposals in the face of a huge debt. But “Who is responsible for creating this financial situation?" Hatoyama retorted.
Heizo Takenaka, the architect of the administrative changes that gave Japan a long period of economic expansion (2001-2005) under Prime Minister Junichi Koizumi, criticised the speech. “The government is taking a small step forward and a big step backward,” he said. “Their policies are like a construction project for a fabulous kitchen and living room that don’t take the rest of the house into account.”
Another Asahi’s editorial was instead more positive. “[G]iven the sombre reality of our society, where people are now suffering increasingly from all sorts of unfairness and hardships while the social structure itself is fraying at the seams, Hatoyama's direct, urgent appeal for action to ‘overhaul society’ was certainly refreshing.”
The composer and the conductor
Every day, Asahi publishes a short article that provides food for thought. The 28 October edition read, “If we use musical metaphors, his speech is no more than a musical score. There would be no applause from the audience unless the orchestra can actually play the music as written. As a conductor, Hatoyama has yet to demonstrate his leadership. Since the score is impressive, if his baton technique appeared shaky, public distrust would mount.”
Hatoyama is quite aware of this. “Our manifesto is a contract we've signed with our citizens, and therefore we will carry it out at all costs," he said. "If we ever find ourselves in a situation four years later in which voters are saying the coalition government . . . has unfortunately failed to meet its election manifesto, I'll take political responsibility."
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