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On December 4, DPJ President, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama addressed a General Meeting of DPJ Diet members held at a venue within the Tokyo metropolitan area. He reflected on the events of the extraordinary Diet session, while emphasizing that the DPJ would continue to make every effort to realize politics for the people, saying, “We will continue our efforts to demonstrate a position which illustrates that politics, including economics, has shifted to a mode of government that works on behalf of the people.”
At the start of his speech, Hatoyama apologized for the inconvenience that had been caused by ongoing investigations into his political funding. He added that he would like to provide an explanation both to the public and to his fellow Diet members once the investigation by the prosecutor’s office had been completed.
He went on to refer to the reductions made in the first supplementary budget, saying, “Nearly 3 trillion yen has been cut. This is unprecedented. It has made the public aware of the significance of a change of government.”
Hatoyama went on to comment on the recent review of projects scheduled to be included in the budget for the next fiscal year. He said, “I believe that [this process] has been favourably received by the public” and thanked the Diet members and other participants in the review for their efforts.
Hatoyama said that the results of the review would be fully reflected in the budget itself, and added that continuing with such methods in the future would make it possible to transform both administration and politics into a form that would be visible to the public. He stressed that this process “is indispensible in order to sustain public approval of the DPJ, and to raise it even further.”
With regard to the economic situation, Hatoyama commented, “We will produce economic measures that will enable the Japanese people to face the holiday season with confidence.”
Hatoyama went on to say, “In the three months since the launch of the administration, I don’t think that we have received full marks from the public. But, I think that they have come to believe that there has been a marked change in politics.” He added, “The people played a leading role in bringing about a change of government, and showed they had the courage to change. We should value this. We mustn’t waste [the impetus] of the new administration.”
In closing, Hatoyama thanked Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, Chair of the DPJ Caucus in the House of Councillors Azuma Koshiishi, and Chair of the Diet Affairs Committee Kenji Yamaoka for their efforts with regard to party and Diet affairs. He ended by expressing his resolution in saying, “The DPJ-led government will work to ensure that the coming year is one filled with hope and dreams.”
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