Upper house poll calls for bold debate

Our country currently faces a number of tough issues: rebuilding social security, securing peace and safety for the nation and dealing with fiscal problems, just to name a few.

Campaigning for the House of Councillors election officially kicked off Thursday.

Our country suffers from a combination of a declining birthrate and graying society, as well as a declining population. With this, how can the nation rebuild its social security system, including the pension program? How should the country deal with the worsening security environment? How can we proceed with tax and fiscal reforms, including a possible hike in the consumption tax?

The political parties and their candidates must present clear ideas on such fundamental issues that closely bind our lives with the running of the nation. They must be bold in their discussions of these issues.

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Abe focuses on 'achievements'

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes to appeal to voters through what he touts as his administration's achievements since taking power in September. Under his watch, the Fundamental Law of Education--the defining law on education--was revised and the Defense Agency became the Defense Ministry.

He was the first prime minister in the past 50 years to realize such ambitions, developments he refers to as a "break from the postwar regime."

During his first speech of the campaign, Abe touched on those victories and emphasized an "acceleration of reform"--apparently showing he believes these three developments are the crowning moments of his tenure so far.

Other significant achievements the Abe Cabinet cites are the passing of a law to reform the Social Insurance Agency by disbanding it and reestablishing it under a different name and stripping officials of their public servant status; and the enacting of a set of three laws on education reform, the centerpiece of which was the introduction of a teachers license renewal system.

But how will voters grade Abe's "achievements"?

The Democratic Party of Japan and the People's New Party each backed legislation to upgrade the Defense Agency, while the Japanese Communist Party and Social Democratic Party opposed the move. The DPJ made counterproposals for revising the Fundamental Law of Education and for establishing a national referendum law, meaning the largest opposition party was not totally opposed to Abe's two new laws.

However, the DPJ voted against the government's bill to revise the top education law and the ruling camp-sponsored national referendum bill--apparent moves to create confrontation with the government and ruling camp in the run-up to the upper house poll.

What will the electorate think of such maneuvering by the opposition camp? This is one thing voters should take into account when stepping into the polling booth.

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Platforms offer insight

The voting public will not focus only on what the candidates and their parties have done already, but also on what they promise to do in their party platforms.

Among its main campaign promises, the DPJ has proposed a 26,000 yen monthly child allowance that would end with graduation from middle school, and subsidies to farmers to make up for the gap between production costs and market prices.

Some pundits have blasted these policies as pork-barrel politics. To the voters, the DPJ must explain the necessity of these policies and how it intends to finance them.

In regard to the high-profile pension issue, the ruling and opposition blocs have finally begun discussing how to reform the state-run pension system. These deliberations, however, must go deeper and consider such options as a consumption tax hike.

The DPJ has said it wants the tax rate to stay as it is, and that the revenue from the consumption tax should be used as a coffer for the basic pension plan. We wonder whether this would be enough to finance these payments and how the government can secure the money needed to pay for the social security system--including medical services--as a whole.

Tax hikes are a bete noire during a political campaign. Yet the DPJ won favor with voters after proposing a consumption tax hike of three percentage points to fund a "pension tax" during the last upper house election, in 2004.

The core element of Abe's goal of breaking from the postwar regime is the revision of the Constitution. "Revision" must be the Abe Cabinet's motto.

The prime minister must be explicit in how the Constitution is to be revised and how that revision is to be carried out.

The campaign pledges of the DPJ and New Komeito, illustrate those two parties' lack of commitment to constitutional revision.

DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa is an advocate of conditional revision. Perhaps Abe and Ozawa should debate the issue.

North Korea's nuclear weapons program is the most serious threat facing Japan's national security. It is not clear the six-party framework on North Korea's nuclear development will lead Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.

China continues to build up its military capacity, adding to the worsening condition of Japan's national security environment. Discussion of diplomacy and national security should figure prominently in the election.

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LDP, DPJ scrap for power

The latest House of Councillors election is effectively a two-party race between the LDP and DPJ, with each party fielding an almost identical number of candidates.

Since the 1989 upper house election, the LDP has never once secured a majority in the upper house. Since 1996, the LDP only managed to take the Diet by forming a coalition with other parties.

Of particular interest in this election is whether the ruling coalition of the LDP and New Komeito can secure a majority.

In the first speech of his party's campaign, DPJ's Ozawa said that if the opposition failed to achieve a majority in this poll, "There is no prospect for a change of power in Japan," emphasizing he would do what was in his power to keep the ruling camp from obtaining the necessary 122 seats.

The LDP is facing a headwind because of the pension record-keeping errors, inappropriate remarks by Cabinet ministers and political funds scandals.

If the ruling camp fails to secure a majority in the upper house and the opposition bloc makes its grab, the foundation of the Abe administration will be significantly undermined. With political realignment in mind, Ozawa appears to be eyeing a dissolution of the House of Representatives.

This means Ozawa is using the upper house as a means to seize power.

The upper house is often described as an "organ of reconsideration" that keeps the extravagance of the lower house in check. Confrontation between political parties in the lower house--the main stage for power contests--have seeped into the upper house, and it has become an "organ of political affairs."

How should we view these developments in the upper house? This latest election provides us a good opportunity to consider the function and role of the upper house.