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On February 9, DPJ Supreme Adviser Kozo Watanabe took to the podium in the Committee on Budget in the House of Representatives. He questioned the vagueness of Prime Minister Aso’s comments regarding postal privatization, called for former Prime Minister Koizumi and former Minister of State for Privatisation of the Postal Services Takenaka to give sworn testimony before the committee, and emphasized that the resignation of the Aso Cabinet and the speedy dissolution of the House of Representatives in order to call a general election and bring about a change of government was necessary for the sake of the national wellbeing.
First of all, Watanabe said, “Listening to the questions put to Prime Minister Aso and his response to them, I felt it would have been better for him not to have become Prime Minister.” He added sarcastically, “Prime Minister Aso is unfortunate, but the Japanese people who have him as their Prime Minister at the time of a crisis that happens once in a hundred years are even more unfortunate.”
Next, Watanabe pointed out that Prime Minister Aso is the third Prime Minister in a row after Abe and Fukuda not to have received the vote of confidence of the nation. He explained that in such circumstances, the essence of democracy would have been for Aso to dissolve the Diet after forming a cabinet and ask the people for their judgement on his policies. He added that Aso’s failure to dissolve the Diet had led to the creation of a political vacuum and asked the Prime Minister for his opinion on this. Aso said that he had decided not to dissolve the Diet because of the need to place policies over political manoeuvring in the wake of the sudden change in the global economy, and while repeating he would certainly call an election at some stage, did not make clear when this would be.
Following this, Watanabe said, “Former Prime Minister Koizumi’s decision to dissolve the Diet and call a general election as a referendum on postal privatization caused the ruling parties to obtain a two thirds majority. As a result, politics has been messed up and the people are really suffering.” He called for Aso to make his position clear, saying, “The electorate are hoping to hear a clear response from the Prime Minister in this Committee on Budget, but even if we take the one issue of postal privatization his stance keeps changing, and it is not in the least becoming of him as a man.”
Furthermore, Watanabe said that since the Prime Minister’s opinion on the issue of postal privatization, which had split public opinion down the middle, differed from that of former Prime Minister Koizumi and former Minister of State for Privatization of the Postal Services Takenaka, Koizumi and Takenaka should be called before the committee to give testimony.
Watanabe went on, “Currently, 1500 trillion yen of private assets exist in Japan, and even 1% of that would generate 15 trillion yen’s worth of demand, but a lack of confidence in politics is depressing demand,” emphasizing that the best way to improve the economic situation by promoting demand would be to bring about a change of government.
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