Japan Press Weekly

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2011 April 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

Your Party’s self-contradiction becomes clearer

The Your Party, which for the first time is fielding its own candidates in the simultaneous local elections, has revealed its contradictory stance over the focal election issue of disaster prevention.

Your Party Representative Watanabe Yoshimi in a street speech on April 13 in Tokyo said, “Since soon after the major quake, public servants engaged in duties involving danger, such as policemen, firefighters, and Self-Defense Force officers, have performed their duties at the risk of their lives.” He added, “Whether their fundamental strength takes effect or not depends on the support of the political system.”

However, the Your Party is calling for a drastic cut in the number of public workers. The “local agenda” policy proposal the party published in its convention in January calls for a 20% cut in total personnel expense for local government employees and thoroughgoing administrative reform. In the ongoing local elections, a candidate from Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, called for reducing the number of ward employees per thousand population from 9.21 to 7.17.

Local governments have suffered from the so-called “reform” of the previous Liberal Democratic-Komei government calling for transfer of financial responsibilities from central government to local governments and a similar “reform” of the present Democratic Party of Japan government under the name of “regional sovereignty.” Under these “reforms,” local governments have been forced to reduce the number of their employees without considering their duties of protecting the lives and safety of their residents. For example, 158,327 firefighters whom Watanabe cited as an example of public servants with dangerous duties comprise only 75.9% of the minimum requirement of 208,516 firefighters to ensure safety. In some local governments, the rate of fulfilling this requirement remains at around 40-50%.

The government admitted that these low rates are caused by the severe financial positions of cities, towns and villages and by the administrative reform controlling the fixed number of firefighters (a government written reply to Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Sasaki Kensho, Nov. 27, 2007).

The Your Party has actually taken advantage of the occurrence of the major earthquake as an opportunity to call for grand reconstruction by establishing a “doshu” (broader administrative blocs than the present prefecture system) system in the Tohoku district in advance of its introduction in other regions (March 25).

In the aftermath of the major earthquake, the broader administrative coverage of a municipality resulting from mergers of cities, towns, and villages was a major obstacle to relief work, survey of damages, and provision of aid materials to shelters. Local fire departments and volunteer fire companies have detailed knowledge of localities. They were most reliable in sheltering people and searching missing people.

In disaster-hit municipalities, public employees struggled hard, without rest or sleep, to maintain and restore administrative functions. Public employees of other municipalities turned up to offer whatever assistance they could. This clearly showed that local government employees have important roles to play in providing services to residents.

In order to let the crucial underlying strength of localities have full effect, it is necessary to strengthen the network of government employees working to protect lives in the areas of firefighting, medical services, and nursing-care services.

The more the Your Party insists on reducing in government employees and imposing broader administrative blocs (the “doshu” system), the contradictions between its policies and the general public calling for more reliable prevention measures will become sharper.