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On February 13, in the third day of basic deliberations on the budget for fiscal 2012 in the Committee on Budget in the House of Representatives, Seizo Wakaizumi and Seiji Osaka asked questions on behalf of the DPJ.
Wakaizumi asked about (1) those affected by the nuclear accident, (2) mental health care for victims of the disaster, (3) nuclear power policy and (4) the debate regarding energy policy. Wakaizumi’s constituency is in Fukui prefecture, the site of many nuclear power stations, including Tsuruga nuclear power station, which has been operating for 41 years and is the oldest in Japan. He touched on local anxieties in regions hosting nuclear power stations, and pointed out that it was necessary for the Japanese people as a whole to consider the issue of nuclear power, taking the nuclear accident at Fukushima as a departure point, with the administration presenting the necessary information and knowledge for this process. He said that it was time for Japan to create a national framework for new energy policies, which would include considering the issue of how job creation and economic stimulation could take place in regions hosting nuclear power stations, in the event that such power stations were decommissioned, and the introduction of renewable energies.
Prime Minister Noda responded, “When reconstructing our energy policies, we must look at the issue from a variety of perspectives, such as economy and environmental protection, and national security. We need to make judgements while also grappling with the effects [such policies] will have on local economies, employment and day-to-day life.” He said that the administration intended to put forward a proposal containing the best mixture of energy policies to assuage such local anxieties by this summer.
Osaka asked about (1) the response to recent heavy snowfalls, (2) stance on US bases in Japan, and their position in relation to the Constitution, (3) the future of the nation’s finances, including the burden that would be placed on the Japanese people by returning the nation’s finances to the black, as well as the feasibility of such a task, (4) the process involved in submitting the four bills relating to reform of the civil servants system, (5) regional sovereignty reforms, and (6) stance on opinion polls.
With regard to opinion polls, Prime Minister Noda said, “They are a manifestation of national opinion, and basically I take them seriously, but I believe that it is necessary not to be pulled this way and that by them, and if something is truly in the interests of the nation and the Japanese people, even if public opinion is critical of it, we need to persuade the people [to accept it]. Our job is to determine how to relate to the public while engaging in vigorous debate.”
Osaka said that when relating to the public it was important that a situation did not develop in which one side just expressed their point of view and the other just listened to it, but that it was necessary to have the goal of raising the level of intelligence possessed by both sides. Expressing his understanding for the difficult position faced by top leaders, who even if they do something that is right are not always judged to have done so, he said that while the ruling party has come under fierce criticism, they have also been praised for their efforts in some respects.
Noda introduced some examples of policy successes achieved since the change of government, including stopping the hollowing out of the medical profession by increasing the number of gynaecologists and paediatricians, and eliminating the disparities in doctor shortages through a review of annual across-the-board cuts of 220 billion yen in the social security budget; reducing the number of high school drop-outs and increasing re-enrollment in high school by those who previously dropped out by making high school tuition fees free in practice, and embarking on the revitalization of impoverished regions by implementing the so-called “trinity reform” which increases the provision of lump-sum subsidies and local allocation tax to such regions.
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