Make Politics Work for People's Lives

A society where each and every person's life matters, a society in which people view others' happiness as their own: that is the fraternal society I wish to build. Ending wasteful spending and using the money instead to rebuild people's lives: that is what a transfer of power to the Democratic Party of Japan will mean.

This may seem mere common sense: people's lives matter, taxes shouldn't be wasted. And yet that "common sense" has broken down.
Today there are children of single mothers who can't take part in class trips, who can't go to high school. There are seniors who can't go to the doctor when they are ill.
Every day, in this country, over a hundred people take their own lives.
Meanwhile the government is so out of touch with reality that it goes on pouring huge sum of taxpayers' money into construction projects.

What has become of politics in Japan?
True politics means setting priorities in policy-making and in spending. I want a world where politics values people above concrete projects.
I want to approach policy from the perspective of the citizen, not leaving it to the hands of bureaucracy.
I want to create a horizontal society bound by human ties, not a vertically connected society of vested interests.
I want to create a society where everyone can be useful to one another, and everyone can discover their place.

The Democratic Party of Japan's philosophy is "Putting People's Lives First." Based on this new scale of priorities, we will rework the budget and focus the use of taxpayers' money on childrearing and education, on pensions and medical care, on regional sovereignty, and on employment and the economy.

Hope will be born in the hearts of people who no longer feel anxiety about their lives, and their positive spirits will give impetus to the nation as a whole.
I ask you to join with the DPJ in ending an outdated system that is causing people to suffer, and in building a nation where everyone can find fulfilment in their work and in their lives.

The time has come for a change of government.

Yukio Hatoyama

President, Democratic Party of Japan