ニュース 2009/01/20 Inuzuka proposes more effective use for economic stimulus payment money On January 20, DPJ member of the House of Councillors Tadashi Inuzuka questioned the government’s stance on Afghanistan, drawing on his experiences following a visit to that country, and called for the government to make more effective use of the money earmarked for fixed sum economic stimulus payments in the second supplementary budget. At the start of his speech, Inuzuka cited a comment by Dr. Joseph Nye, slated as a possible next US Ambassador to Japan, in which Nye stated that Japan could not even guarantee the security of its own citizens. Inuzuka went on to stress that “we have reached a critical moment in terms of what shape the philosophy of international cooperation will take going forward.” He also referred to the concept of “smart power”, emphasised by incoming US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which combines military power with diplomacy, and reiterated the importance for Japan of activities which use such smart power, adding soft to hard power by responding to events on the ground based on on-the-spot information. Inuzuka went on to deliver a report on his visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia、which took place for 17 days from the end of the year with a view to checking the feasibility of activities proposed for the SDF in the DPJ’s eradication of terrorism bill. During his visit he met with Japan’s ambassadors to each country, Taliban affiliates, US military officials and others, to work toward creation of a structure to achieve an “agreement to end hostilities”. He said that his experiences on the ground had brought home to him “just how much Japan is trusted”, and expressed his appreciation for the way in which exclusively defensive activities which are representative of the Japanese way were being used as soft power. Inuzuka added that the “agreement to end hostilities” was a naturally occurring internal process, and that the understanding on the ground was that the 99.9% of right-minded inhabitants in each region would distinguish themselves from the extremist minority hiding in their midst and declare peace for their respective region. He also revealed that after having conversations with the ambassadors of Afghanistan and Pakistan to Japan he had proposed that “small-scale special economic zone projects” be carried out as civilian development projects under the supervision of Japan, and that he had received the agreement of NATO and Taliban representatives for his proposal. He requested that the Diet consider holding working level discussions with the two countries and earmarking 200 million yen out of the 30 billion yen supplementary budget for such projects. Next, Inuzuka touched on the issue of irregular workers, introducing comments he had received from small-scale single proprietor businesses related to the construction industry that spoke of the pain they were experiencing, such as “general contractors are suffering, so subcontractors are being forced to do the impossible” and “since we receive payment by draft, it takes as much as six months from completion of the work before we receive the cash.” He pointed out that with the unit price of labour for public works construction having fallen, actual construction workers were suffering, and commented, “isn’t it a mistaken use of the budget to leave these labourers with their drastically reduced wages and use approximately two trillion yen for fixed sum payments.” Inuzuka added that it would be more effective to use approximately one trillion yen of the money to earthquake-proof ten thousand elementary and junior high schools nationwide. He emphasised that “public works projects use taxpayers’ hard-earned money and are not something that should simply be carried out as speedily and cheaply as possible” and proposed that when the government contracted work out to local general construction firms, the contract should include a provision stipulating that general contractors should guarantee wages for their subcontractors.