FOCUS: Hatoyama preparing ministers to end dependence on bureaucrats

+

TOKYO, Sept. 16 Kyodo -
With all eyes fixed on how Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's new government will
go about fulfilling his party's campaign pledges, the Cabinet lineup indicates
his determination to put an end to politicians' long dependence on bureaucrats.
But various difficulties may lie ahead due to some unpredictable factors, such
as how well the policymaking process can be unified under a coalition
government and what kind of role Ichiro Ozawa, an influential veteran in the
Democratic Party of Japan's No. 2 post, might play.
''It goes without saying that I've created the most powerful lineup to
implement what we have put forward to the people in our (campaign) manifesto,''
Hatoyama told reporters Tuesday, the eve of his parliamentary election as prime
minister.
True to his word, the 18-member Cabinet includes some key players in the DPJ,
such as former party leaders Naoto Kan and Katsuya Okada, and Akira Nagatsuma,
also known as ''Mr. Pensions,'' who has taken a high profile in the fight over
the government's lost pension records.
By including members of every major group in the ruling party, Hatoyama seems
to have taken steps to ensure his Cabinet is a stable one, as suggested by the
fact that many of the ministers have served multiple terms as lawmakers.
At a news conference on Wednesday, new Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano
stressed that by fielding the DPJ's central figures and veteran members with
political experience, Hatoyama has laid out a formation in which ''all the
baseball players are performing their roles in a game.''
With key posts given to major party figures particularly interested in
realizing their pet policies, the Cabinet is indicative of Hatoyama's resolve
to give the people the fruits of their electoral choice.
The appointment of Kan, a former health minister who has battled the nation's
powerful bureaucracy over the years, to the post of state minister in charge of
the proposed National Strategy Bureau is a case in point.
The bureau, which would be tasked with formulating the contours of the national
budget and creating national visions, would showcase Hatoyama's pledge to exert
greater political control over the bureaucracy and policymaking.
It would also embody the unitary, Cabinet-centered policymaking structure the
DPJ has advocated, as opposed to the dual structure of previous governments led
by the Liberal Democratic Party, where party officials were able to block
government-sponsored legislation.
Concurrently serving as deputy prime minister, Kan is expected to play a major
role in Hatoyama's drive toward asserting greater political control. ''I very
much expect state minister Kan to exert strong leadership,'' the new prime
minister said.
But it remains unclear exactly what the bureau would become and would do, with
critics saying there is a potential for a clash between Kan and Finance
Minister Hirohisa Fujii, under whose jurisdiction budget compilation currently
falls.
Hirano said the strategy body Kan will be heading will ''design the framework
of a budget and give instructions to the Finance Ministry and other ministries,
instead of the Finance Ministry compiling a budget.''
''It will be quite different from the way things were before,'' he said.
The leaders of the DPJ's two coalition partners -- Mizuho Fukushima of the
Social Democratic Party and Shizuka Kamei of the People's New Party -- have
also been appointed as Cabinet ministers.
The two parties had initially called for setting up a panel outside the Cabinet
to have their parties' opinions reflected in the policies of the coalition
government. But the DPJ persuaded them to join a Cabinet committee where the
DPJ's Kan and the leaders of its two partners would sort out differences on key
policy issues.
While their inclusion in the Cabinet is seen as essential to ensuring the
Cabinet-centered policymaking structure, the proposal could complicate the new
policymaking process.
''The purpose of (Fukushima's) participation in the Cabinet is to actively air
our opinions at the Cabinet committee,'' an SDP executive said, suggesting the
party's intention to make use of the panel to shape government policies to its
liking.
While being made outside the Cabinet, the appointment of former DPJ leader
Ozawa as the powerful party secretary general also has some critics worried.
They say the kingmaker, now put in charge of party and Diet affairs to help
engineer another victory for the DPJ in next summer's House of Councillors
election, might try to pull strings from behind the scenes.
The fact that many of the 143 DPJ members elected to the lower house for the
first time in the Aug. 30 general election are ''Ozawa children'' who won their
seats with his support perturbs those who are concerned about Ozawa's influence
within the party.
In another sign of Hatoyama's resolve to exert more political leadership,
Hatoyama named Nagatsuma as health, labor and welfare minister amid worries
about a potential clash with ministry officials given the history of his
persistent questionings over the pension scandal.
''I will fully implement what I have advocated by getting rid of waste,''
Nagatsuma said Wednesday, referring to his calls during the election campaign
for cleaning up Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district, where the welfare ministry and
most other ministries are located.
==Kyodo