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On May 27, DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama engaged in the first Prime Minister’s Question Time with Prime Minister Aso. The following is a translation of an edited version of their exchange.
Regarding North Korea’s nuclear test
Hatoyama: We categorically condemn North Korea’s nuclear test. North Korea gave prior notification of the test to the United States and China. Did the Japanese government receive prior notification from the US? The Minister of Foreign Affairs says that there was no such notification, but other Cabinet members say that there was. The Japanese people deserve to know the truth.
Aso: It is true that we received the information quickly. It is impossible to get other nations to promise to give us the information at such and such a time on such and such a day. Dealing with events after they have occurred is what is important.
Hatoyama: You have an obligation to inform the people as soon as possible. If we do not engage in thorough management of information this nation will not survive.
On creating a fraternal society that is not bureaucrat-led but focuses on ordinary citizens
Hatoyama: The goal of recent prime ministers has been to become LDP President and Prime Minister, and they have had no particular objective in mind. As a result, we are at the whims of the bureaucrats. I will build a fraternal society. This is an old yet a new theme. Now, the ties that bind our society have broken. I want to create a society with love and human ties, a contented society, a society in which people view others’ happiness as their own. Today’s society is one in which people envy others’ happiness and rejoice at their misfortune. Why have things become this way?
Aso: Rather than principles and abstract notions, we are facing a crisis. The most important thing is to decide how to respond to this. Several months ago I said that I would like to create a government that is warm-hearted even if it is small. A change of government is a means not an end. What does the DPJ intend to do about social security and national security? The public are concerned about this point.
Hatoyama: Changing the government is not an end: it is merely the start line. Here is one concrete example. In No. 4 Elementary School in Mitaki City, Tokyo, 500 volunteers have enrolled [as teaching assistants]. Each teacher is assisted by 4 volunteers, and the classes divided into groups, enabling individual guidance to take place, and this is preventing students from being left behind. The children are satisfied and the volunteers also feel fulfilled. Human ties: these are the impetus for creating a future Japan. [Addressing the heckling coming from government benches] Let those who sneer at such ideas depart. We must bring about a change of government. The Aso administration and LDP-Komeito government is led by the bureaucrats. In contrast we will create an administration that places the focus on the public, citizens and ordinary people. We will do away with the concept of centralized power and shift to regional sovereignty. We must make a revolutionary change from a vertically-organised system of government that places the emphasis on the business world to a horizontal society that works together to cherish its citizens as a whole. To sum up: we should bid the old political system farewell.
Aso: I can’t get an overall sense of what you mean. We are not scholars or analysts. You talk about “bureaucrat-led”, but if you don’t think of a way to inspire the bureaucrats who are giving their all in public service, the bureaucrats will not work for you.
Hatoyama: A third way that is neither the current perverted equality nor a dog-eat-dog philosophy is needed. Our starting point is restoring trust in politics and ending the arrogant viewpoint engendered by bureaucrat-led politics.
On reforming the Political Fund Control Law
Hatoyama: The DPJ’s Political Reform Promotion Headquarters has decided to implement limitations on hereditary politicians and a comprehensive ban on corporate and organizational donations. We are planning to submit legislation during the current Diet session. For the people’s sake, we ask for the cooperation of the government and ruling parties in bringing this legislation into law.
Aso: The public are most concerned about the Nishimatsu Construction scandal. Has this matter been sufficiently explained? Is appointing Ozawa as Acting President making him take responsibility? Saying that the system is faulty is just trying to change the subject.
Hatoyama: Acting President Ozawa spent 2 hours explaining about this matter to an independent panel of intellectuals. Their report will be published in due course, and I would like you to read it. The media and the prosecutor’s office have refused to appear before such an independent panel and have not made any kind of explanation. [To the government benches] Many of you cannot be described as blameless.
On bureaucrat-led supplementary budgets
Hatoyama: The supplementary budget includes 117 trillion yen for an Animation Hall of Fame, the purchase of 71,000 digital television sets for government bodies, and also the introduction of green automobiles. Supplementary budgets should be for items of an urgent nature, so is it really appropriate to include such non-urgent items in a supplementary budget? The sum allocated for upkeep of facilities was 64.9 billion yen in the actual budget itself, but in the supplementary budget it is 2.8 trillion yen. How can you justify such a sum? Surely this is a bureaucrat’s budget, made by bureaucrats for bureaucrats. We should sweep away wasteful uses of tax money and stop these kinds of budgets.
Aso: This represents the funding for several years.
Hatoyama: You have wasted our time with meaningless responses. It is the LDP that is creating debt and planning to increase consumption tax in two years time. We will do our best to ensure that you make a speedy exit. I want to create a nation we can be proud of. Let’s continue to participate in these head-to-head debates with no holds barred.
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