DPJ Promises Political Reforms in Japan

"I will vote for the politician who can revitalize the local communities and their industries," says a voter, who hopes that after the parliamentary elections, the central government will shift some power to regional governments.

Up till now the government in Tokyo has decided on the affairs of prefectures from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south.

"There is a feeling that the national government tends to work against us, rather than for us," says a local official from the city of Nemuro on Hokkaido island.

Calls for decentralisation

In Japan, there are approximately 3,000 local and 47 prefecture governments. Taxes are paid on national and local levels. But the central government’s revenue is almost the double that of the local governments’ and the latter shoulder nearly two thirds of the spending on social services. Therefore local governments often have to look to the central government for additional funds.

Minoru Morita, a political analyst in Japan thinks the system should change:

"The central government should take care of areas such as foreign and security policy, or monetary and economic policies, but the issues directly related to everyday life of people, or social issues, or those related to infrastructure, should be looked after by the cities or the prefectures."

Japan’s opposition Democratic Party or DPJ, which is ahead of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the pre-poll surveys, has promised change. Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of the party vows to introduce reforms such as government decentralisation and boosting spending on welfare projects, child care, schooling, health care and pensions.

Reducing bureaucrats’ power

Above all, the DPJ also wants to reform the bureaucracy in the country by reducing the power of the bureaucrats, who have so far played a central role in policy making and drafting legislation.

Hatoyama says he is in favour of a political system which is led by elected politicians and where the public plays a leading role.

But many don't believe the DPJ can really work without bureaucrats. Jeffrey Kingston from the Temple University, Japan is one of them. "Everybody loves to hate bureaucrats. But the reality is that the DPJ doesn’t have the capacity to develop policies and implement them on its own. It is going to need to develop a good working relationship with the bureaucracy," says Kingston.

Over 100 million Japanese are eligible to cast their ballots in the upcoming vote, which, if it is won by the DPJ, will usher in a new era for the country which has been ruled by the Liberal Democrats for more than half a century.

Author: Disha Uppal
Editor: Grahame Lucas