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On February 4, DPJ member Shin-kun Haku made a speech in the House of Councillors Committee on Budget, asking Prime Minister and DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama, and other government ministers for their position on issues such as the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea, defence procurement, and the failure of Japan Airlines.
In relation to the abductions issue, Haku said seven years had passed since some abductees had returned to Japan in 2002, but unfortunately there had been no developments since then, and asked what form the Hatoyama administration’s engagement in the issue would take. Hatoyama replied, “Abduction is totally unforgivable. We would like to make every effort as a government to ensure that the abductees can return home safely as soon as possible.” He said that he would like to respond to the feelings of the victims’ families, who felt they “could not wait even one more day”, and expressed his resolution to first engage in information-gathering, liaising with other affected nations and proceeding to engage fully in this issue.
Haku queried, “Why it is that there is no progress despite this being such an important and critical issue?” and asked for an explanation of past government engagement from the Chairman of the National Commission on Public Safety and Minister of State for the Abduction Issue Hiroshi Nakai. Nakai explained that, following his appointment, he had discovered that not much investigation and information-gathering had been undertaken in the past. He revealed that in the budget for the forthcoming fiscal year approximately twice the amount of funding had been allocated in comparison with previous years, and stated, “We are creating a system with the intention of focusing on thorough information-gathering and determining the fate of the abductees, and we are currently assembling human resources and proceeding with the preparations for this.”
Haku expressed his approval for the fact that the budget allocated to strengthening the system for investigating the whereabouts of the abductees and resolving the abduction issue had been increased more than four-fold in the budget for fiscal 2010. Moreover, in their exchange, Nakai explained, of past efforts to investigate the abduction issue, “the majority had been concealed by the passing of time, and the true facts had not been discovered.” He added that he had called on the police to review their investigations into the abduction issue, and emphasized the importance of thoroughly investigating those cases of abduction and those where abduction was suspected. The possibility that the number of abductees officially recognized by the government might increase as a result of such investigations was also acknowledged.
Following this, Haku suggested that in view of the fact that the government is considering the acquisition of next-generation FX fighters to update its fighter capabilities, it would be advisable to consider implementing offset transactions for defence procurement. Haku said, “This means saying: ‘we’ll buy your weapons, and in return we’d like you to buy something of ours.’ In other words, it is a transaction that calls for 50% returns, by for example the purchase of 50% of the price in [Japanese] goods, say shinkansen or linear shinkansen or agricultural products etc. This kind of system is operated around the world, for example by the EU, the Republic of Korea and India.” Haku said that the old-style vertical administration had not been able to implement such a system, but if the various government ministries and agencies worked together it was possible, and would lead to an increase in exports and in employment. Minister of Land, Transport and Infrastructure Seiji Maehara responded, “Should the Ministry of Defense, while investigating how procurement should be carrying out, decide that this system should be implemented across the administration as a whole, we would like to consider this possibility.” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said, “The DPJ does not contain so-called “zoku giin” (politicians belonging to various policy tribes). We have created a new budget by reviewing the vertical division of budget allocation. This is a new idea that is not restricted by the framework of a vertically-organised administration. We would like to consider it.”
Haku then asked Maehara for his opinion of the reason for the corporate failure of Japan Airlines. Maehara responded, “A whole variety of causes operated in concert.” He added: “The rigid nature of the company’s organization was a problem, and the fact that it had purchased a large number of airliners when times were good and was thus in the red was also a large contributory factor, but more than that, the responsibility of the national government in building 98 regional airports, and then saying “We built them so now fly to them”, in effect forcing unprofitable routes on the airlines, was also a huge factor. In addition, there are various other contributory causes, such as the Lehman Shock and the H1N1 influenza outbreak.”
In response to this explanation, Haku said, “Compared to other countries, Japan’s landing fees for domestic flights are ridiculously high.” He revealed that past administrations had “received these high fees, included them in the special account for airports and [used them] to build airports” and suggested that the data predicting the demand for regional airports was fabricated.
Haku also stated that landing fees needed to be reduced. In reply, Maehara stated that “a review of landing fees in order to reduce the burden on airlines is important in order to return them to competitiveness,” and added that he intended to carry out a thorough review of special accounts.
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