politics

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Liberal Democratic Party celebrates its 50th year

Cold-blooded and dangerous politics

The Liberal Democratic Party observes its founding anniversary on November 15. It will hold its commemorative convention on November 22, and the main item on the agenda is the adoption of its new aims, program, and its draft of a new Japanese Constitution.

After the House of Representatives election on September 11, LDP leaders began to talk of a "New LDP." Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro (LDP president) said that "The LDP has changed,"echoed by LDP Secretary General Takebe Tsutomu saying, "The LDP has been reborn as a reform party."

Has the LDP really changed? Let's look at what's going on in the LDP at its fiftieth year.

How do LDP politicians view the LDP's 50th anniversary? An old LDP politician who three times served as a cabinet minister, now enjoying retirement in his former constituency, says:

"The LDP emerged victorious in the general election, followed by a cabinet reshuffle establishing the new Koizumi leadership. The LDP's draft of a new Constitution is in place. Everything is OK, except one most important thing: the LDP's future."

On the afternoon of October 31, two events took place almost simultaneously in central Tokyo, symbolizing the present state of the LDP.

Gotoda's testament

One was a gathering held in a hotel near the Diet to bid farewell to former Vice Prime Minister Gotoda Masaharu, who died in September. About 1,700 politicians and business leaders attended the event. In the last several years, Gotoda has used bitter words of criticism warning about the Koizumi Cabinet's domestic and foreign policy, saying that the country is at risk.

Former Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro gave the memorial address. He said, "In your late years, Mr. Gotoda, you were in a mental state of 'valuing group harmony most' when you viewed domestic and international affairs, and this is exactly what you spoke about and put into practice." This had connotations of reference to Koizumi politics that mercilessly punishes the party members of the Diet as well as political forces who oppose the Koizumi policy line and externally repeats the dangerous provocation by visiting Yasukuni Shrine in defiance of criticisms abroad.

In his turn, Kono Yohei, the House of Representatives speaker, spoke about criticism he invited when he conveyed to the prime minister former prime ministers' opinion that Mr. Koizumi should exercise prudence in visiting Yasukuni Shrine. Officials close to the prime minister said Mr. Kono's action was "incompatible with the separation of three powers."

"Mr. Gotoda said to me, 'It's inappropriate to forget that Japan is governed by parliamentary politics. The highest organ of state power is the Diet and nothing is wrong with the House Speaker conveying to the prime minister concerns about the future. It's wrong to criticize such an action.' If I fail to do all I can now, I will be admonished by Mr. Gotoda."

At the ceremony, the recorded voice of Mr. Gotoda was played as his will. He said:

"For 60 years after the War's end, no Japanese soldier has killed people in foreign countries. No Japanese citizen has been killed by foreign troops. Japan is the only developed country with such a record. We should be proud of it.

In the present-day world, the logic of the strong is overpowering. There are disadvantaged people experiencing pitiful lives. It is the responsibility of politicians to find ways to take good care of them."

He also said, "I do not want LDP politics to be cold-hearted."

The new lineup

Another noticeable move was one that involved the LDP head office and the Prime Minister's Official Residence. Prime Minister Koizumi reshuffled his Cabinet and named the three top LDP leaders, the start of new political power under a 3rd Koizumi Cabinet. In the reshuffled Cabinet, the Finance Minister, an advocate of raising the consumption tax rate to more than 10 percent, kept his office. The former LDP official in charge of policy affairs was appointed to be the minister in charge of fiscal and economic policy as well as financial services. The new Chief Cabinet Secretary and the foreign minister are strong advocates of constitutional revision and of the prime minister's Yasukuni Shrine visits. A key representative of the special interests of the defense industries came back as director general of the Defense Agency. The new Cabinet should be portrayed as forming a "cold hearted" and "dangerous" regime.

LDP freshmen at training session at Nippon Keidanren

On the afternoon of November 10, 83 Liberal Democratic party members of the House of Representatives, who were elected for the first time in the September general election, were meeting with leaders of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren). A one-hour meeting was to be followed by a party.

This was part of the seminar that began in late September with the aim of providing LDP freshmen with basic knowledge Dietmembers need to have. The LDP leadership decided to set up the seminar in haste to educate them, realizing that a number of freshmen came under public criticism when they revealed the inability to respond to questions put by voters in their constituencies or by reporters. A freshman's remark that "I like to go to luxurious Japanese restaurants" had disgusted the public.

In this seminar, they listened to lectures by veteran LDP Dietmembers on such themes as what Dietmembers should and should not do, the budget process, fiscal problems, the Japan-U.S. alliance and the alignment of U.S. forces in Japan, and the LDP draft of a new Japanese Constitution.

The meeting with Nippon Keidanren was the first "extracurricular activity" outside of LDP headquarters. The freshmen include some who received donations from large corporations such as Toyota Motor Corporation as well as from Nippon Keidanren.

On the same day, they had a 90-minute tour of the Prime Minister's Official Residence. The meeting with Nippon Keidanren was set up at Keidanren Hall in the Otemachi business district of central Tokyo. Thus, phase one of the freshmen training program was a practical seminar on Koizumi politics that maintain close connections between the Prime Minister's Official Residence and Nippon Keidanren.

Discussion across political, financial and bureaucratic sections

There was another move. A forum was set up with the aim of maintaining connections between politicians and business leaders. Its discussion was held on October 27 at the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) by politicians, business leaders and bureaucrats. The discussion was on the "outdated public offices election law." It was based on the recognition that the need now is to securely establish a "two-party system" with the single-constituency election system as its prerequisite.

Keizai Doyukai participants included Matsui Michio (CEO, Matsui Securities) and Mikitani Hiroshi (Chairman and CEO, Rakuten). Participants from the LDP included Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo and Senior Vice Minister of Justice Kouno Taro. Present from the Democratic Party of Japan were DPJ President Maehara Seiji and DPJ Constitution Committee Chair Edano Yukio. Former DPJ President Okada Katsuya also participated in the discussion. No one attended from the Komei Party.

The stated aim of this forum is to "provide an opportunity for hopefuls in the business world, politicians, and bureaucrats to exchange views on various issues surrounding Japan."

Thus, the connections between the business leaders and the two conservative parties - the LDP and the DPJ - have become stronger.

Twenty requests for the LDP

Soon after the LDP's landslide in the House of Representatives general election, the business sector began to make one request after another to the LDP.

Okuda Hiroshi, Nippon Keidanren president, said, "These should be implemented swiftly with audacity."

Kitashiro Kakutaro, Keizai Doyukai chairman, stressed that "there must be no political stalemate."

Since September, Nippon Keidanren and other business federations submitted about 20 letters of policy requests, including a call for continued corporate tax cuts. They are apparently trying to achieve as many gains as possible while the LDP and Komei hold two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives.

40-year history was not written

The compilation of the "Fifty-Year History of the Liberal Democratic Party" is under way. It will be composed of two books that contain the general history and a CD containing historical documents, and are expected to be published by autumn 2006. Writers include former major newspaper political reporters putting the finishing touches to the book.

In its statement on the publication of the party history, the editorial committee chaired by the LDP secretary general says, "We must accurately hand down the party history for a new era."

Trauma of being an opposition party

The LDP history has been published every ten years, but the party did not publish its "40-year history".

In 1995, the LDP observed its 40th founding anniversary.

In 1993, the LDP was forced to give up power to become an opposition party. Although it returned to power in 1994 by joining a ruling coalition with the Socialist Party at the time and the New Party Sakigake (or Harbinger Party), the prime minister was the Socialist Party chairman. The LDP, which was tottering at the time, found it inappropriate to get preoccupied with writing party history.

During the period in which the LDP was in the opposition, business leaders as well as the United States completely changed their attitude toward the LDP.

A former LDP cabinet member who is familiar with the situation at the time said: "The LDP has been traumatized by its bitter experience as an opposition party. It does not want again to get the cold shoulder from the business sector and the United States."

In January 1996, Hashimoto Ryutaro became the prime minister. Thus, the LDP president made a comeback as prime minister. Hashimoto willingly began to put into practice policies requested by the United States and Japanese business circles, leading to the Japan-U.S. Security Declaration and the "six-point reform plan." After this, the successive LDP governments leaned more heavily toward defending the interests of the United States and the business sector. It would be correct to say that the Koizumi Cabinet has gone to the extreme.

Another missing point in the LDP history is how heavily it has depended on corporate money.

The 1955 founding of the Liberal Democratic Party through a merger of the Liberal and Democratic parties was a necessary step to deflect public distrust and stop supporters' departures following the 1954 scandal involving the shipbuilding industry.

The financial circles first prepared money for political donations. In January 1955, they established a political fund management body, "Forum on Economic Reconstruction" (present National Political Association). Using this mechanism, the business sector helped the Conservative Party, the Democratic Party, and the Liberal Party. They also made donations to the Left- and Right Socialist Party, as stated in the "40-Years of the National Political Association." Thus, the business sector poured in money to all political parties except the Japanese Communist Party.

In May of the same year, the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) general assembly adopted a resolution calling for the conservative parties to merge into one party. Six months later, the Liberal Democratic Party came into being.

Buying policies

Two years after the start of Nippon Keidanren's massive use of political donations as leverage to influence politics, the total amount of political donations made by Nippon Keidanren member companies reached 2.3 billion yen in 2004, a 400 million yen increase from the previous year. In defiance of criticisms that business circles are buying policies, about 600 companies, or about half of Nippon Keidanren member companies, began to offer donations to the LDP and the DPJ.

Miyahara Kenji, Nippon Keidanren vice chair in charge of political funds (Chairman of Sumitomo Corporation) said: "We put the brakes on the decline in political donations. The amount of donations again is on the increase, and the contributor base is broadening" (at a Political Forum gathering on October 13).

Prime Minister Koizumi on October 10 said, "The LDP must be recognized by the public as a party that has become a reform party."

If LDP politics is compared to a human body, the United States is the backbones; business circles the thighbones, and the bureaucratic apparatuses the ribs. Prime Minister Koizumi's politics has no intention to change this structure.

This is why the substance of LDP politics does not change even if it calls itself a "Reform Party." -- Akahata, November 9-11, 2005