Ditching a political vision
(From The Japan Times July 22 issue)

国家戦略局断念、政治主導貫けるか

The Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto for the 2009 Lower House election envisaged establishing a National Strategy Bureau directly under the prime minister. The bureau would gather talented people from the private and public sectors to work out a national vision, and decide on the framework of the government budget.

It and the Government Revitalization Unit to detect and eliminate government waste were to serve as the "two wheels" of a political setup in which elected lawmakers take the initiative in developing policy measures.

But Prime Minister Naoto Kan's July 15 decision could wreck this vision. He has given up on the plan to upgrade the National Strategy Office to a legally backed "Bureau" and decided to downgrade the functions of the office. It will be deprived of the power to coordinate different government ministries and agencies; instead, it will focus on making proposals, and providing information on domestic matters and diplomacy to the prime minister.

This follows the July 11 election loss of the ruling camp's majority in the Upper House. The prospect of Diet passage of government reform bills, including the planned upgrade of the National Strategy Office to the National Strategy Bureau, has weakened. The Kan administration appears to have lost the tenacity and perseverance to do the necessary groundwork to get cooperation from the opposition forces or to form a coalition with an opposition party so that important bills can pass the Diet.

In the Hatoyama administration, Mr. Kan, who served as national strategy minister, did coordination work for the fiscal 2010 budget. In the Kan administration, the trio of Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Mr. Koichiro Genba, the DPJ's policy affairs chief, will do coordination work for the fiscal 2011 budget. National strategy minister Satoshi Arai will be excluded from the team. Mr. Sengoku is likely to lead the team, but he is very busy and not supported by enough staffers. The trio must be careful so that they will not be co-opted by bureaucrats.

民主党は昨年の衆院選マニフェストで、首相直属の国家戦略局を置き、官民の人材を結集して国の展望や予算の骨格を策定するとしていた。

同局と行政の無駄を撲滅する行政刷新会議は、政治主導の政策決定という政権構想の両輪となるはずだった。

しかし首相は、国家戦略室を法的に強化するための局への格上げを断念した。各省庁との調整機能を失い、政策提言や首相に対する国内問題や外交の情報提供に重点を置くことになる。

参院選敗北の末の決断だ。

菅政権では仙谷官房長官、野田財務相、玄葉党政調会長の3人が2011年度予算の調整をする。荒井国家戦略担当相は含まれていない。仙谷氏がチームを率いることになりそうだが、多忙で、支えるスタッフも足りない。チームが官僚に取りこまれないよう注意が必要だ。