Japan's top bureaucrats hold probable last agenda-setting meeting

+

TOKYO, Sept. 14 Kyodo -
Japan's top bureaucrats held their last meeting Monday under the government of
Prime Minister Taro Aso to set agenda items for discussions the following day
by Cabinet ministers, putting an end to a tradition believed to have lasted 123
years as the Democratic Party of Japan, which will soon form the next
government, has vowed to abolish it.
The meetings of administrative vice ministers, held at the prime minister's
office on Mondays and Thursdays, the days before Cabinet meetings, are said to
date back to the establishment of the Cabinet structure around 1886, during the
Meiji Era (1868-1912), and have long been the symbol of the nation's
bureaucratic control over decision-making.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Iwao Uruma, who has chaired the meetings and
will resign from his post on Wednesday, urged his fellow vice ministers to
speak their minds if necessary, although their meetings may soon be abolished.
''Even if the meetings are done away with, it is important for members of the
meetings to boost their horizontal cooperation and speak to Cabinet ministers
if something is likely to be done to the detriment of the nation and the
people,'' he said during the day's meeting.
The DPJ, which advocates abolishing the meetings to give elected officials
greater decision-making power as part of its efforts to part from
bureaucrat-reliant politics, is set to launch a new Cabinet on Wednesday after
DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama is voted in as the new prime minister in a special
session of parliament during the day.
While a Cabinet meeting is the government's highest decision-making panel
attended by every Cabinet minister, what they should discuss at the meeting has
been decided in advance by the administrative vice ministers, the
highest-ranking bureaucrats in their respective ministries, in meetings which
have no legal basis and have been held by convention.
The DPJ also aims to abolish the regular news conferences the vice ministers
have held after their meetings, on the grounds that ''there will be no
administrative vice ministers' meetings anymore,'' as DPJ Secretary General
Katsuya Okada put it last week.
As to concerns that the abolition might limit public access to information,
Okada said, ''It won't infringe upon the public's right to know.''
After presumably the last administrative vice ministers' meeting on Monday,
Uruma said the current format has worked well for generations by enabling
bureaucrats to coordinate policies before Cabinet members gathered to make
decisions.
But now that the meetings are expected to be abolished, ''I hope both
(bureaucrats and politicians) will bring their wisdom together as they go about
building a system in which Cabinet meetings can proceed smoothly in
unanimity,'' he said at a news conference.
Meanwhile, several administrative vice ministers said at presumably their last
news conferences after Monday's meeting that while they recognize the roles
their meetings have played over the years, they are also open to the new
administration's policy to abolish them.
''I don't think they (the meetings) are the one and only measure to ensure the
unity of the Cabinet,'' said farm vice minister Michio Ide. ''Although I don't
know what kind of substitute there will be, we will deal with it appropriately
in line with the new administration's policy.''
Vice Defense Minister Kimito Nakae noted in his news conference that his press
briefings have served to fulfill his accountability to the people on informing
them of the various issues the Defense Ministry deals with.
As to Monday's vice ministerial meeting, he said, ''I had a meal at the prime
minister's office and took my time over it, thinking that maybe today would be
the last day.''
The DPJ said in its campaign platform for the Aug. 30 general election that the
top bureaucrats' meetings should be abolished so that it can put politicians in
charge of decision-making.
In the incoming DPJ-led administration, the functions the meetings have served
are expected to be fulfilled by Cabinet committees, where several Cabinet
ministers make final policy adjustments between ministries.
==Kyodo
2009-09-14 23:35:29