Japan Press Weekly

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2015 June 24 - 30 [POLITICS]

Abe prioritizes ‘guns’ over ‘butter’

“Live frugally and hoist the Hinomaru (rising sun) flag!” This is one of the slogans Imperial Japan promoted during WWII. Today, the administration led by Abe Shinzo has been desperate to turn Japan into “a nation capable of fighting wars abroad” once again. Prime Minister Abe places priority on military interests over social welfare spending, evoking dark memories of policies during the past war.

On May 26 when the Diet began discussing the so-called “peace and security” legislation, Japan Business Federation Chairman Sakakibara Sadayuki placed two demands on the government. One is to push through the war legislation and another is to cut back on spending on social welfare services.

In a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy headed by Prime Minister Abe, Sakakibara listed many social welfare programs to “be reformed” and pressed for the “implementation of all of them” by March 2019. In other words, the business community wants quick and drastic reductions in expenditures on medical, nursing-care, and pension programs.

The government later presented to the council a draft of basic guidelines which is in line with the “reform” list. The draft claims that social welfare is at the top of the expenditure reform priority list, targeting this sector for budget cuts. Its reform proposals include: a 900 billion yen to 1.5 trillion yen-level cut in overall welfare spending in three years; an increase in patients’ share of medical costs; an increase in over-the-counter drug prices; cuts in the number of long-term care beds and outpatients; an increase in nursing-care users’ share of costs; an end to care services for those who need only “light/moderate” levels of care; a lowering of pension benefit levels; and a further tax on pension benefits.

Regarding military affairs, the draft calls for an effective buildup of Japan’s defense capabilities to be highly practical and integrative.

Professor emeritus of Tohoku University Hino Shuitsu said in an Akahata interview, “It is a choice between ‘guns and butter’. Abe puts social welfare on the top of the cutback list. That’s his priority.”

Hino said that the war bills the Abe administration is ardently seeking to enact is reminiscent of prewar and wartime Japan. With the cost of war escalating in WWII, war expenditure in 1944 accounted for more than 85% of the total national budget and higher prices for everything adversely affected people’s lives. Even increases in taxes could not make up for the lack of fund. So the imperial regime at that time issued national bonds to finance the war. An advertisement encouraged people to buy national bonds with the slogan, “Live frugally and hoist the Hinomaru!” However, these bonds turned into worthless pieces of paper after the end of the war.

Hino said, “Human, material, and financial losses caused by war will be astronomical. In contrast, the benefits as a result of the avoidance of war-induced losses and damage will be immeasurable.”

He cited Sweden, which had refrained from directly participating in both World Wars and maintained neutrality, as an example. He said, “Sweden’s choice brought about colossal ‘fortunes’. The country used these fortunes for the start of the effort to build up one of world’s successful social welfare states.”

Only by protecting Article 9 renouncing war and Article 25 guaranteeing the right to live, can the economy in Japan develop, Hino emphasized.