Opinion Revitalizing the Diet By Scott T. Hards	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
国会を再生する 政治スキャンダル続きだった3月。国会はいつになったら本来の仕事に取りかかることができるのだろうか。国会を再生するには選挙制度から変えることが必要だ。

Scandal, scandal and more scandal. So far, 2002 has seen little take place in Japan's Diet other than the questioning of various witnesses about one scandal or the next. Sometimes I wonder when are these people going to get to the business that really matters?

First it was Makiko Tanaka vs. the Foreign Ministry. Then it was Makiko Tanaka vs. Muneo Suzuki. This was followed by Muneo Suzuki vs. everybody. Then Koichi Kato stepped into the spotlight of dishonor when his former secretary was arrested. And to cap off a busy March, Kiyomi Tsujimoto Eafter an infantile display of pompous mudslinging while questioning Suzuki — managed to destroy her own career in record time when it was revealed that she was perhaps the Diet's greatest hypocrite on matters of money.

Much of the debate about these lawmakers has centered on whether they should resign or not. Tsujimoto decided that resiging was best, but Kato and Suzuki have kept their jobs for now. While Kyosen Ohashi's sudden and disgraceful resignation was an insult to everyone who voted for him, if a lawmaker wants to quit, that's their prerogative.

What troubles me is when members of another party try to force someone to resign, especial ly when no formal charges have been filed. These people were elected by the voters and should be held accountable by the voters, not other politicians. If the electorate believes a Diet member's actions justify forfeiture of their seat, they will pass that judgment in the next election. That's the beauty of a democracy.

Revitalizing Japan's democracy will take more than turning our attention from trivial scandals, however. In two fundamental ways, I believe that Japan's electoral system is seriously flawed. The first problem is the proportional representation system, which should be abolished completely. Not only does it allow parties to install unqualified "lawmakers" at their whim (and too often money is involved here), but it also keeps Japan's minor parties alive.

Frankly, Japan doesn't need these little parties at all. The United States, United Kingdom and other democracies have proven that a two-party system works best (for reasons I'd like to discuss, but which are beyond the scope of this column). On the other hand, Japan's minor parties have proven that their only function is to clog up Diet proceedings with whining and complaining about whatever the ruling coalition is doing, a la Tsujimoto, without offering a constructive, viable alternative of their own.

The second problem is the large "vote gap," or inequity in the distribution of Diet seats by population. In the Lower House, the gap is as high as 2.44 times. When you compare the seats to population ratio of Shimane Prefecture to Tokyo or Kanagawa in the Upper House, it soars to 5.02 times. It's a crime that voters in rural regions are so heavily over-represented. Japan's election districts should be completely redrawn along true population lines, and they should be reviewed every five to 10 years to reflect changes.

Perhaps if these reforms were made we could move beyond the petty scandals, and focus on the real work of restructuring and liberalizing the other parts of Japan's social and economic systems that so badly need the Diet's attention.

Shukan ST: April 12, 2002

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