Japan bureaucracy appears unruffled by DPJ`s sweeping victory

TOKYO, Aug. 31 Kyodo -
Central government officials on Monday appeared unruffled by the Democratic
Party of Japan's landslide general election victory, which drove the
long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party from power for only the second time in
its 54-year history.
A day after the House of Representatives election, many officials working in
Kasumigaseki, Tokyo's bureaucratic center, said the outcome was not a surprise
as they had largely factored in the main opposition party's victory.
''It's just like when the president changes in a private company,'' said a
high-ranking Finance Ministry official, who refused to be named. ''All we have
to do is to follow the policy of our new head.''
While declining to make a direct reference to the election outcome, Yasutake
Tango, the top bureaucrat at the ministry, said in a similar vein at a news
conference that the role of administrative officials under Japan's
parliamentary government is to assist the prime minister and Cabinet ministers.
Harufumi Mochizuki, the top bureaucrat at the trade ministry, said the DPJ's
victory represents ''the will of voters'' so government officials must keenly
sense ''this significant political development.''
Mochizuki, vice minister of economy, trade and industry, told reporters that
civil servants need to accelerate their efforts to become more familiar with
the DPJ's basic visions for Japan's future.
Still, some government officials sounded more uneasy about coordinating
policies with the new government and changing the way they have worked over the
years.
Their attitudes tended to differ depending on where they work, with those
responsible for issues closely related to the DPJ's key pledges such as
welfare, education, social infrastructure and agriculture seeming more nervous.
A senior welfare ministry official expected a drastic change in administrative
operations.
The official said Kasumigaseki is set to be filled with new culture, as if it
were a company suddenly led by ''a foreign president.''
''It is, so to speak, holding meetings from now on in English,'' he said. ''As
an employee, there is no other choice but to serve our new president.''
A different official at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said it is
very important to see who will serve as its new minister before predicting any
major change in the short run.
Speaking in a rather sarcastic tone, he said, ''In order to realize allowances
to children, there are many issues. We can do whatever if financial sources are
brought by'' the new minister.
The DPJ, which has never governed since its inception in 1996, has pledged to
wrest power from elite bureaucrats in formulating policies and put an end to
what it sees as wasteful spending.
The DPJ has placed a strong focus on reviewing budgetary matters, crafted
hitherto by the LDP, and will start over the process of drafting the annual
budget for the next fiscal year from scratch, despite there being only about
100 days left to meet the ordinary deadline.
With its supreme authority over the state budget, the Finance Ministry has long
been regarded as the most powerful and prestigious institution in Kasumigaseki
under the LDP's administration.
On the surface, many at the Finance Ministry, unlike the two welfare ministry
officials, were not flustered, with some insiders suggesting that it reflects
they and the DPJ are seeing some mutual interest in working together to slash
wasteful spending and restore Japan's worsening fiscal health.
''The outlook is uncertain,'' said a senior official at the ministry who is in
charge of the budget. ''But once the direction is decided, we are confident
that we will be able to put together'' the draft.
The DPJ, which captured 308 of the powerful lower house's 480 seats in Sunday's
election, has pledged to name about 100 lawmakers from the DPJ-led coalition in
government posts such as senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries.
Some officials have voiced concerns over the DPJ's real ability to govern and
realize its key pledges, including cash handouts to families with children and
toll-free expressways, considering that the party has a large number of
relatively inexperienced lawmakers.
At the education ministry, some officials said they are anxious about being
disrupted.
A plan to create a so-called ''manga museum'' that was criticized by the DPJ
during the election campaign as a typical example of wasteful spending comes
under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology.
''A rocky start probably cannot be avoided just after the new government is
formed,'' a senior education ministry official said, adding the ministry needs
to rework its budgetary request for the year starting April 2010 as the DPJ has
promised to effectively get rid of public high school tuition fees.
In Japan, the annual budget is normally drafted by the end of December to make
it ready for approval in the Diet by the start in April of each fiscal year.
The deadline for all ministries and agencies to submit their budgetary requests
to the Finance Ministry was Monday, which was set by Prime Minister Taro Aso's
administration in July.
Like the education ministry, many other government offices will be forced to
review their policies and planned expenditures for fiscal 2010 with the change
in government expected to be formalized in mid-September.
A separate official at the Finance Ministry said he hopes the DPJ will use its
own strength to achieve its election pledges.
''The worst case would be if DPJ lawmakers ask us to help at the last minute if
they find that things do not go as they wish,'' he said.
==Kyodo