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On March 31, DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa held his regular press conference at party headquarters. Asked about the timing for calling of a general election, he commented that according to reports some within the ruling parties favoured a May election, while others were calling for the election to be held after the Prime Minister had attended the G8 Summit in July, and went on to say, “[The DPJ] is ready to response immediately to either of these scenarios.” He expressed his strong conviction that a DPJ victory would establish parliamentary democracy and politics that stood firmly on the side of the people.
In connection with this, Ozawa said that during April the DPJ would carry out its own independent polling in each of the 300 electoral districts belonging to the House of Representatives, and emphasised, “I am intending to use these as the benchmark for all decisions…There is no change in my determination to obtain the understanding of the Japanese people and realise a change of government.”
Asked again about the furore regarding alleged donations from Nishimatsu Construction, Ozawa expressed his intention of obtaining the understanding of the public, which would hopefully lead to a rebound in the DPJ’s support ratings, saying, “[My secretary] thought that the stipulation of the Political Funds Control Law was that you accurately recorded the name of the entity from which you had received a donation, and reported this along with the amount received, and so he acted accordingly…[We] have reported our dealings in accordance with the Political Funds Control Law and [we] have not lied or concealed anything. If this has been misunderstood by the public, I would like to take every opportunity to reiterate this point.”
Ozawa also gave his impression of the governing practices shown by Prime Minister Aso in stating that when putting together a supplementary budget in order to implement economic stimulus measures, he would not rule out issuing deficit-covering government bonds. Ozawa commented, “It is perfectly possible to realise new policies by thoroughly investigating the composition of the existing budget and the contents of the existing budget for each government ministry and organisation and eliminating wasteful uses of funds.”
Regarding the cabinet decision to approve a bureaucratic reform law that includes provisions for establishing a personnel office within the Cabinet Office, Ozawa pointed out that the system of governance in which power was centralized in Kazumigaseki had already created a whole variety of contradictions and that a nimble response had become impossible, creating impoverishment of the regions and a ballooning of central government He emphasised that it was necessary to transform the organs of governance themselves, saying, “There is no meaning in simply tinkering with personnel arrangements while the existing mechanisms of governance still remain a given.”
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