Mainichi has an editorial about the government's administrative reform proposals — discussed in this post.Most of the editorial simply summarizes the contents of the proposals, but includes a paragraph about opposition within the LDP to the proposals."Wholly negative opinions — 'Not realistic' — can be heard from within the LDP regarding the restrictions on direct …
Continue reading Is administrative reform a wedge issue for the DPJ?
Yomiuri reports that the prime minister's Advisory Group on Comprehensive Reform of the Public Service System, chaired by Okamura Tadashi of Toshiba, has issued its final report containing recommendations for reforming the Japanese bureaucracy.The report, available for download here, contains a number of good suggestions, in pursuit of seven goals: (1) outlining the appropriate role …
MTC asks an extremely pertinent question about which I have been wondering all week.While pleasantly surprised by the new cabinet, MTC wonders who exactly was responsible for picking the new lineup. Mr. Abe no doubt has many people whispering in his ear — perhaps he would think more clearly if that wasn't the case — …
The final breakdown: DPJ 60, LDP 37, Komeito 9, Independents 7, JCP 3, SDPJ 2, PNP 2, NPJ 1.That gives the opposition parties 137 seats to the government's 105, with the DPJ becoming the largest party with 109 seats, more than the government parties combined. With the thirty-two-seat differential between opposition and government parties, there …
With Prime Minister Abe turning his attention and blame to the hapless bureaucrats in the Social Insurance Agency — those bureaucrats who have served as the fly in his constitution revision ointment — the Japan Times published a piece by Philip Brasor discussing the actual conditions within the agency, and the bureaucrats who lorded over …
Continue reading Death of the 1955 system? Greatly exaggerated.
I have previously discussed how the Abe Cabinet has reverted to form in the cabinet's relationship with the LDP; I have also discussed how Abe has essentially put his predecessor's structural reform ideas on hold.Asahi picked up this narrative on Sunday, in an editorial on the government's recently issued fiscal policy draft proposal, asking whether …
Tobias S. Harris 