My opinion of this week(433):

Anti privatization of postal service

I watched the live show of Special Committee of House of Council for
privatization of Postal Service bill all through last afternoon. The 
discussion itself was almost a kind of repetition of several key issues
which have been debated so much in House of Representative so far. I got
tired of watching those debates but I continued to watched them for I
wanted to see how the bill was resolved at the last moment. I expected 
some struggles might occur between ruling parties and opposition parties on
the resolution.

Nothing happened, though. The law was resolved by majority vote by ruling 
parties.  I was about to switch off TV for I thought that all for the 
resolution of the bill was finalized for plenary session for next Monday. 
But after the bill was resolved , a lawmaker of Liberal Democratic Party 
appeared at debate seat and began to present a supplementary resolution to 
the bill. So I continued to keep watching TV.

I knew something about this supplementary resolution before which was 
reported in a news paper yesterday. But I did not really know what they are 
all about. I was very surprised to know the content while the lawmaker kept 
reading it. "Oh, No!  What is this all about? " I exclaimed in dismay.

Prime Minister Koizumi has repeated to say as all someone knows concerning
privatization of postal service like this. "Let private firms do it as much
as they can do." He insisted to say that any works which are now being done
by public post offices can be done more efficiently by private firms. And
private firms will be able to do those works much better than public 
corporation because they are motivated to do so under market principle or 
free competition principle. No one including myself would deny the principle.
So the bill in question was presented to the diet under the assumption that 
the management of Postal Service Agency of Japan will be improved many ways
by privatization. 
 
Contrary to Koizumi's assertion, a lot of objections have been presented
both from inside of ruling parties and from opposition parties on the bill.
For example, they insisted the necessity of keeping current post office network
which covers all over Japan. They said some local post offices which are
very necessary life line for those who live in very rural area. They further
insisted that some workers might lose their jobs for the efficiency of the
organization once the public office is privatized. 

The privatization bill is presented to the diet to materialize the efficiency
and rationalization of organization of postal business as far as I understand
it. That is all reason why the agency must be  privatized. 

I was really astonished to hear the contents  of supplementary resolution
of the bill which was presented at the last moment of special committee.
They are not supplement to the principle of free competition but anti 
or protective measures against market principle by asserting necessity of 
keeping very local post offices and employment of workers who works in such 
very inefficient operation.

The main bill advocates the necessity of introduction of market principle
by privatization. The supplementary resolution attached to the bill 
denied the pimple.  That is all what they are doing. 

Why was such supplementary resolution attached at the last moment of special
committee of House of Council?

It is because the bill may be rejected at the plenary session of House
of Council to be held next Monday by opposition votes by ruling parties.
The supplementary resolution was  prepared trying to  minimize such opposition
votes.

I watched NHK TV news last night. They reported the bill had been finally
resolved at special committee of House of Councils without saying anything 
about this supplementary resolution. Their major interest was focused 
on whether or not the bill would be resolved at plenary session of the
House of Council. I was quite disappointed with it the fact that even such 
very important media like NHK did not call all any attention on such 
inconsistency between the bill and supplementary resolution. 

My personal expectation  on this issue is that the bill would be rejected
at plenary session of the diet on Monday. Koizumi will resolve the House
of Representative if this happens. There will arise a lot of confusion
in Japanese politics for time being. But I believe that this is very 
necessary step for the politics of this country at the moment.

2005/8/6
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(434):

Wake up from Koizumi hypnotism 

What a strong obsession Koizumi keeps to have  on the postal service 
privatization bill!  The bill was rejected at the House of Councils and
Koizumi dissolved the House of Representative  last week. He doesn't care
about any criticisms on the action from any where. 

There are a lot of criticisms about the dissolution of the House of
Representative because it is not logical. The House of Representative had
passed the bill a month ago. The bill was rejected at the House of Councils
by more objection from lawmakers of Liberal Democratic Party. Then he 
dissolved the House of Representative insisting he must ask now the will
of people on the bill by election. He never accept any criticism from 
lawmakers the dissolution is not reasonable from legal point of views.

Many popular votes made recently mostly support the action of Koizumi,
though. I personally agreed with the dissolution on the assumption that
it is necessary to clarify such  political confusion caused by the 
bill. I wrote about it  in my opinion of this week two weeks ago.

So it's fine and interesting to see how election campaigns have started.
People must have been surprised to see a kind of retaliate action which
Koizumi administration is going to take against 37 former members of the
diet who opposed the bill. They will not be given any party endorsement
to run for the election although they keep party membership.  It is 
reasonable, at any rate. 

But punishment is not that all. The executive committee of LDP decided to
put new and strong candidates at all electoral districts of those 37 
lawmakers. For example, at  No.10 district of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, Minister
of Environment, is going to run against Kouki Kobayashi who was one of
an  influential opposition members on the bill. Many more such retaliatory 
actions will be taken from now against those 37 members.
 
The reason why Koizumi take such action is very clear. The House of
Representative was dissolved due to the fact that postal adminiministration
privatization bill had been rejected at the House of Councils. So the
main issue on the election is whether people are for the bill or not. 
Voters must choose one from two alternatives.

Such simple strategy taken by Koizumi administration  turned out to be very
 successful so fat. Interest of people on the election has been centered 
around the internal conflicts  of LDP by a number of reports made by mass 
media.  Existence of opositision parties such as Democratic Party of Japan
has been overshadowed under this circumstance.

The strategy Koizumi took for this election has worked out so good so far.
Heizo Takenaka, Minister in charge of the bill, said that privatization
of postal service is a milestone for a smaller government.  He said:"Which
do you choose, a smaller government or larger government ?" 

But this is wholly inaccurate and  sloppy statement indeed.

It is true that privatization of postal service is one factor to materialize
a smaller government. But it is only a small part from my point of view.
There are lots more major parts to be rationalized to attain smaller
government. The main part is reduction of head counts of bureaucrats of 
Kasumigaseki, the central government offices. I just don't understand
why Koizumi keeps saying any administrative reforms cannot be done without
reform of Postal Serivice Agency. 

It seems that people and even mass media are still taken in by Koizumi's
trick. The privatization bill of postal service is just one of many 
important policy issues. There are many more important issues such as 
pension system, finance reform, administrative reform, political reform, 
diplomatic problems, so and so forth as far as their priority is concerned.

I just can't believe the fact that Koizumi still keeps a kind of good
support rate from people. I strongly warn that people should be released
from his hokey hypnotism as soon as possible.

2005/8/13
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(435):

Horiemon, who ?

There were a lot of rumor about him. Takafumi Horie, President of Livedoor
Corporation, has finally decided to run as a candidate at District 6 of
Hiroshima Prefecture for coming general election. He will run an independent
without LDP ticket for he did not accept the condition from LDP requesting
to quit the presidency of Livedoor once elected as a diet member. 

He further said to insist that he could keep more freedom of behaviors in
political world by running as an independent candidate. LDP decided to 
support Horie under this suggestion for they can attain the major objective 
to put a candidate against Shizuka Kamei who opposed Postal Administration
Bill at last diet session.

In his recent books, Takafumi Horie declared he would never become a lawmaker
in his career. He also said Prime Minister Koizumi slicked too much on the
issue of Postal Administration Bill. The day before he met Koizumi, he met
Katuya Okada, President of Democratic Party and allegedly requested to create
the position of Minister of IT when Democratic Party gains the power. This was
a condition he request if he would run as a candidate from Democratic Party. 

This news drew a lot of attention not only in Hiroshima but also in all
over Japan. But evidently, it seems that Takafumi Horie does not necessary
wish strongly to be elected as a lawmaker. His main purpose is to run for 
the electorate where he can draw the largest attention in the election 
campaign. 

He said he would fight for Postal Administration Bill that is a symbol of
Koizumi's total structural reform. But it seems that that is only a chop 
logic. He must have assumed that he could gain a lot even if he was not be
able to win in the election.  

The request from LDP to quit the presidency once elected as a lawmaker
is quite reasonable. But he rejected the request saying that the time
he spend for the job is only a small part of his daily hours. That's not
true. It can't be that way. 

In other word, his time to spend for politics will not be so much after
all after he is elected as a lawmaker. How can he share a noble ambition
to attain structural reform that Prime Minister Koizumi advocate by that
way? 

The news on Horie's candidacy drew a lot of attention for sure. The 
support rate for Koizumi cabinet showed further increase in recent popular
vote research. I just can't understand why this is. 

People seem to enjoy so many Koizumi's political shows these days. Why
don't they have some more doubt about such ethically and reasonably 
disoriented candidate election process?  

LDP obviously expect Horie to get more support from nonparty affiliated
voters. But I do hope that will not happen. The result of election at 
this time depends on how this 60%  nonparty affiliated voters select 
candidates in each electorates. 

I look forward to seeing a kind of drastic change will happen in coming
general election.

2005/8/20
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(436):

A role of mass media

I criticized Takfumi Horie in various way in my opinion of last week. But
I began to have some good impression about him since he came to his 
election district in Hiroshima for he started something entirely new　which
 is different from conventional style of other candidates. While　those 
conventional competitors are taking ordinal tactics relying on　ordinal
election ground, he tries to approach the whole electorate without having
any of such established base by completely individual approach . 

Some of the tactics he stared is just new different from many of 
conventional approaches observed in Japanese election so far. He could
do it because he has a lot of money.  But his approaches are quite
interesting and I rather have a good impression about it.

Most of all, I like his comment about number of lawmakers in the House
of Representative. He said that he believe the numbers of lawmakers in
the House of Representative can be much smaller in total. He even said
that the House of Councilors may not be necessary from his point of view.
I believe that he should put this in his manifest. If he is independent 
candidate he should not say much about whether or not he is for Postal 
Service Privatization Bill.

When it comes manifest, Democratic Party of Japan is less represented 
at the first stage of election campaign compared with Liberal Democratic
Party that drew much attention from people by sending competitive 
candidates for all former LDP lawmakers who opposed the bill at last 
diet session. What's more, LDP's strategy is to focus people's major 
attention on the bill without talking too much about other issues.
It is natural that Democratic Party is trying to draw more attention on 
many other key issues in manifest against LDP's strategy.

Koizumi's approach is too simple to dispute with. In election campaign at
various cities, he spoke nothing but the bill. So far his tactics is
very successful and he is getting a good popular vote in this first stage of
election campaign. It is no good as far as I am concerned.

I don't know whether or not many mass media start to have some concern about
such tendency, but many mass media including news papers and TV stations
seems to start reporting a lot more about some other manifest other other
than Postal Service Bill. They now report more about comparison of some other
major issues such as pension plan reform, finance reform, diplomatic 
issues and so on. They started to report about the questionnaire on various
other policy issues how people shows their interest in many of those 
important issues. 

Asahi Newspaper, for example, wrote in their editorial some doubt about
Koizumi's approach in this election by saying the bill in question is
obviously not the whole policy issues in this election. The editorial
also denied Koizuimi's assertion that the bill is a milestone for many
other key reforms as other opposition parties insisted.
 
Mass media should not report too much on a certain party and support only
a certain party. They should be fair and neutral as much as possible. 
But they should be wise and fair enough about how manifests of each 
parties are debated in the election and show a reasonable views on manifests
of each parties. I appreciate the editorial of Asahi Newspaper this morning
in this sense.

All other mass media should take the same stance which Asahi  showed in
the editorial. All they have to point out is that the Postal Service Bill
is not the whole and key issues at all as ruling parties, i.e.. LDP and
Komei Party insisted in this election. 

2007/8/26
Tadashi HAYASE