Hatoyama vows to end bureaucrat-led politics in 1st news launch

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TOKYO, Sept. 16 Kyodo -
Newly inaugurated Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama emphasized his resolve to break
away from the tradition of overly depending on bureaucrats in decision-making
in his first press conference Wednesday.
He also said his government will compile the fiscal 2010 budget without a major
fault, and dismissed views he might alienate the United States in diplomacy by
calling for a relationship of trust with U.S. President Barack Obama and an
inclusive regional community in the future.
''Now is the time to practice politics that are not controlled by
bureaucrats,'' Hatoyama said following his appointment to the premiership in
the Diet earlier in the day as head of the Democratic Party of Japan, which won
an overwhelming victory in the Aug. 30 general election.
Saying the Japanese people are ''the true winners'' of the election, Hatoyama
vowed to create politics that are people-oriented but at the same time sought
the public's participation in realizing such a policy and patience until his
government grows by trial and error.
In a question-and-answer session, Hatoyama expressed confidence that his
administration will secure enough fiscal resources to realize the pledges in
his party's election manifesto, such as generous child allowances, ''at least
in terms of over 7 trillion yen for the initial fiscal year.''
His government will compile its budget proposal for fiscal 2010, which starts
next April, with a sense of speed that it will be done by the end of the year
as usual, although it plans to conduct a ''zero-based review'' of the process
and is already behind in restarting the whole process, he said.
The Finance Ministry has finished accepting budget requests from each other
ministry by the Aug. 31 deadline as usual, but Hatoyama plans to let the newly
established National Strategy Office draw up the budget's basic framework and
another new Administrative Reform Council slash spending deemed wasteful.
On the diplomatic front, Hatoyama said he will try to first build a
relationship of mutual trust with U.S. President Obama when he visits the
United States later this month, and take time in raising his government's
contentious stance to revise the current policies on U.S. forces in Japan.
He also said his idea of creating an East Asian community in the medium to long
term is not intended to ''exclude the dollar or the United States'' but rather
to be developed further into an Asia-Pacific community.
Although the idea is ''correct in the medium and long term,'' an Asia-Pacific
community, which would involve the United States, should be pursued after
creating such a community, he said, adding he wants to outline some elements of
the idea in his address to the United Nations General Assembly later this
month.
As for his own questionable political funds, which he admitted and apologized
for before the general election, Hatoyama acknowledged that he remains unable
to win public understanding and said he will continue efforts to fulfill his
accountability.
On June 30, Hatoyama admitted his political fund management body made false
statements in its annual reports over four years from 2005 using the names of
deceased people regarding a total of around 22 million yen, but that the figure
involves no illegal donations and he had dismissed a secretary in charge and
revised the reports.
==Kyodo
2009-09-16 22:47:23