The New Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Policy

  2010/7/5 source：

Recently there has been a big change in Japanese political situation. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama lost public support because he failed to accomplish his promise of moving Futenma Station out of Okinawa. Under the pressure both inside and outside of the Democratic Party, Hatoyama announced to resign. Former Finance Minister Naoto Kan became the new Prime Minister of Japan. Regarding new Japanese Prime Minister Kan and his administration’s policy directions, we have invited Deputy Director Wu Jinan of Academic Committee to give his thoughts.

Q: First of all, would you please introduce the basic information of the new PM Kan?

A: Naoto Kan is one of the founding fathers of the Democratic Party; he has been the leader of the Democratic Party for three times. In Japanese political field, Kan is an exception who comes from a civilian background; Kan has experienced many obstacles in his political career, so he has a strong frustration tolerance. Kan served as the Minister of Health and Welfare in the Hashimoto administration. When dealing with the problem of tainted blood, he decisively punished officials in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and won wide applause from the Japanese public.

Q: Naoto Kan is the fifth Prime Minister in the last four years. Although the new administration received a supporting rating as high as almost 60%, it also faces many problems. It is still uncertain whether the Kan administration will remain longer in power. What is your opinion on this matter?

A: Naoto Kan came to power at a difficult time and he is in a tough situation compared to his predecessor Hatoyama’s inauguration with flowers and applause eight months ago. The most urgent task for the new administration is to regain political trust from the public; it needs to sever itself decisively from Ichiro Ozawa who is held up by the scandal of political funding. Undoubtedly, Ozawa will play the mastermind with strong support of his cligue in the election to the House of Councilors due on July 11. If Naoto Kan offended Ozawa and screwed up the election, he would definitely be forced to abdicate by Ozawa clique in the election for the Democratic leader in September and would still have a short-life administration.

Q: Naoto Kan used to be the Minister of Finance. Japanese public has a high expectation on him to improve Japanese economy. Meanwhile, the government debt of Japan is 2.27 times as high as its GDP; the Democratic Party has proposed to increase sales tax to alleviate financial burden, but tax increase also faces lots of difficulties, what will the Democratic Party do?

A: Another great task for Kan is whether he can reboot Japan’s economy. When Kan was the Minister of Finance, he gained a profound understanding that Japan’s state debt is among the top of developed countries and Japan is living beyond its means way back. Kan suggested that increasing sales tax could be a powerful method to reconstruct finance, but the Democratic Party had promised that it would not increase tax in five years; there will be a trust crisis if it broke the promise.

Q: Compared to his predecessor, what readjustments will Naoto Kan do in terms of his administration’s relations with China and the United States?

A: Dealing with China-Japan relations and Japan-US relations will be the touchstone for Kan’s leadership ability. Kan will try to alleviate its disagreements with the United States; he will probably build airports in Okinawa to substitute for Futenma as hoped by the Americans, and try to appease Okinawa public. Naoto Kan has had a relatively friendly attitude toward China; after he took power, he clearly stated that he would not visit Yasukuni shrine. However, leveraged by hardliners on China both inside and outside the Democratic Party, Kan will have to take a low-profile and practical attitude toward the relationship with China. He will probably continue Hatoyama’s China policy and push forward Sino-Japanese strategic mutual-beneficial relations.

Q: When Hatoyama took the power, he brought up the idea of constructing East Asia community, but he did not put the idea into practice. Will Naoto Kan continue to push forward the construction of an East Asia community?

A: Hatoyama’s idea of East Asia community lacked specific framework. In the first few months of the Kan administration, he will probably mainly devote himself into domestic and diplomatic problems instead of constructing East Asia community. But if his administration will survive the Autumn as Japan is hosting APEC summit, it might bring up some specific plans.