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

JCP lawmaker criticizes administrative reform bill

The House of Representatives on March 23 started discussing the bill on the promotion of administrative reform that includes cutting the number of government employees.

Japanese Communist Party representative Yoshii Hidekatsu at the plenary session on the same day criticized the bill as a measure to drive a wedge between public sector and private sector workers, create divisions among the public, and curtail the public servants' vital role in ensuring public security and supporting the daily lives of residents.

The ruling coalition parties and the Koizumi Cabinet are saying that the bill is the most important agenda item in the current Diet session in that its aim is to establish a "streamlined and highly efficient" central government that will carry out a basic administrative reform policy of cutting back on social welfare and other public services.

Yoshii pointed out that Japan ranks the lowest among major capitalist countries in the number of public servants per 1,000 people and the ratio of personnel cost to GDP. He said that fire stations are understaffed by 25 percent, and that only 40 percent of all local governments have the required number of child welfare commissioners. "If the government further reduces the number of public employees, how can public safety and living conditions be ensured?"

Pointing out that the bill was drafted by four leading staff members of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) chairman and three other business sector people who are members of the government advisory council on fiscal and economic policy, Yoshii asked, "Don't they represent the business circles' interest?"
- Akahata, March 24, 2006