reform

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'Administrative reform' bills cut public services in order to increase corporate profits: JCP

The administrative reform promotion bill that will cut back public services, and the market testing bill that requires the government offer competitive bids in which the public sector and private corporations take part to be chosen as suppliers of public services, and three other bills related to "administrative reform" passed through the House of Councilors Special Committee on Administrative Reform on May 25 by a majority of the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties. In expressing his opposition to the bill, Japanese Communist Party member Daimon Mikishi stated as follows:

The JCP opposes the bill because it will curtail the public sector and abandon public services that support the safety and living standards of the public as well as management of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The government insists that whatever the private sector can undertake should be shifted to the private sector, but private corporations will undertake nothing unprofitable. If they take up anything, they will offer a variety of services to clients who can afford them. It means that the gap between the rich and the poor will bring about a gap in quality of services.

Corporations interested in the services are excited about the prospect that privatizing public services will open a market of 50 trillion yen. In short, the governmental administrative reform only comes from the business circles' hunger for business opportunities.

The consolidation and privatization of the government-run financial institutions is also proposed in response to major banks' long-cherished desire to swiftly get rid of the policy financial institutions that grant loans at lower interest rates. The essence of the administrative reform promotion bill is nothing but a transfer of government undertakings to the private sector.

With regard to the administrative reform, the public demands that tax money should not be wasted and that administration should be more efficient. No one wants the private sector to take over everything.

The first task for the government is to thoroughly probe the waste of tax money caused by the cozy relations between bureaucrats and businesses as seen in retired government officials taking positions at related private corporations, bureaucrats involved in bid-riggings over public work projects, and the inefficiency and waste in administration.

The first thing to be corrected is the government's subservience to the United States that has resulted in its commitment without hesitation to pay whatever the U.S. bids, such as 3 trillion yen for the U.S. military realignment and 80 million yen for each U.S. military housing unit to be constructed in Guam.

As the social gap is widening, the people's call for upgrading social services and improvement in public education is increasing. The administrative reform bills completely run counter to this demand.
- Akahata, May 26, 2006