Kan's administration should break impasse over reconstruction
(From The Japan Times May 20 issue)

復旧･復興への障壁を取り除け

Although the current Diet session is to end June 22, there are no prospects that important bills will be enacted soon. One reason for this is Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki's distrust of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who, after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, sounded him out about the possibility of forming a coalition between the Democratic Party of Japan and the LDP by telephoning him without doing the groundwork first.

Another reason is that Mr. Kan acts as if he was not really concerned about the reconstruction of the disaster-hit areas.

The Kan administration plans to submit a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 — to fund full-scale reconstruction — to an extraordinary Diet session expected to start in August or later. This is used as an excuse by the LDP for not cooperating with the DPJ. Mr. Tanigaki on May 17 threatened to submit a no-confidence motion against Mr. Kan if his administration fails to submit the extra budget to the current Diet session.

The DPJ and the Kan administration must secure the passage of a bill to allow the issuance of bonds for the fiscal 2011 initial budget in this current Diet session. Without the passage of the bill, the government cannot execute a large portion of the budget.

To get cooperation from the LDP and Komeito, the DPJ leadership is ready to modify the child allowance provision, a key DPJ election promise. But it faces opposition to the modification from some DPJ lawmakers who uphold the allowance's basic tenet.

The LDP and Komeito are unlikely to help pass a bill containing the basic outline for the reconstruction of northeastern Japan because the reconstruction agency envisaged by these parties is different from the one conceived by the DPJ and the Kan administration.

Whatever the reason for the current Diet impasse, reconstruction efforts this time are taking much longer to get going than after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Mr. Kan should make utmost efforts to extend the current Diet session so that the second supplementary budget will be enacted early enough.

The opposition on its part should place its priority on assisting in the stabilization of the lives of disaster victims.

6月22日に閉会する今国会で重要法案が成立する見通しは暗い。菅政権は震災からの本格復興策を盛り込む2011年第2次補正予算案について、次期臨時国会で成立させる姿勢を示した。これに対し自民党の谷垣総裁は、今国会で2次補正を提出しなければ内閣不信任案を提出する意向を表明している。

政府は今年度予算の執行を裏付ける特例公債（赤字国債）法案を今国会で成立させないといけない。

自民、公明両党の協力を得るため、与党幹部は子ども手当の見直しを検討しているが、公約の目玉政策であるため与党内での反発が残る。復興対策本部の設置などを盛り込む法案をめぐっても、自公両党は与党や菅政権の考えとの食い違いから賛成しない可能性が高い。

阪神大震災時に比べ復興が遅れるなか、総理は今国会を延長し2次補正の処理を急ぐべきだ。一方で野党は被災者の生活安定を最優先させねばならない。