Ministers say 6-month-old gov't faces difficulties over ethics+

TOKYO, March 16 Kyodo -
Members of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet acknowledged Tuesday that
the government has faced difficulties, particularly over the issue of politics
and money, in the six months since its launch following a historic election
victory last year.

''We are in a sense in a difficult situation to some extent because we have
received criticism from the public about such questions as that of politics and
money,'' Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters.
The Democratic Party of Japan-led ruling coalition has been dogged by a series
of funding scandals, notably those involving the prime minister himself and
party secretary general and kingpin Ichiro Ozawa, driving down the Cabinet's
initially high support rate.
Government revitalization minister Yukio Edano attributed the sharp drop in the
approval rate to his government's inability to live up to people's expectations
about improving ethical standards in politics.
''To say it plainly, the biggest hope people had was to realize a big change in
the question of politics and money,'' Edano told reporters. ''I can't deny that
our inability to show such a change to a sufficient degree is the biggest
factor'' in the support rate fall.
Edano said he is convinced that Ozawa, who has faced calls for his resignation
from the party No. 2 post to take responsibility for his funding scandal,
''will make an appropriate decision at an appropriate time.''
He also expressed hope that Hatoyama, who has compared himself to the conductor
of an orchestra, will exert more leadership, saying, ''I believe the public is
hoping that he will exhibit his leadership in a more proactive sense.''
With the budget for the new fiscal year from April 1 expected to clear
parliament later this month, Kan said, ''The administration will begin working
in earnest on the taxation system and economic growth.''
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano admitted that the public has not felt
firsthand the fruits of change following the end of decades of almost
continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.
''We will aim to run a government in a way that would enable the public to feel
that their lives are given priority,'' he said at a news conference, expressing
hope that once the government implements the fiscal 2010 budget, they will
begin to recognize its benefits.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, meanwhile, acknowledged frustrations within
the public over where to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in
Okinawa Prefecture. ''It can't be helped that the public is frustrated that the
big issue remains unresolved,'' he told reporters.
Consumers affairs minister Mizuho Fukushima, who heads one of the two junior
coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party, touted the role her party has
played over the issue, pledging to continue serving a ''quality assurance''
role in the government.
''Stopping the government from deciding on relocating Futemma to the coastal
area of Henoko last December was a big achievement for the SDP,'' she told
reporters.
Hatoyama postponed deciding on where to relocate the base in December after
Fukushima threatened to pull her party out of the coalition if the government
settled on an existing plan to build a replacement facility in the area in
Nago, Okinawa.
==Kyodo
2010-03-16 23:48:46