Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who publicly committed himself to “realizing a society with a minimum level of unhappiness” when he took office in June 2010, appears at long last to be ready to tender his resignation. And yet, the prime minister, who built his vision for the future of Japan on this double negative of “minimum unhappiness,” apparently evaluates his performance rather highly. In fact, he recently said he has “a certain sense of accomplishment,” (The Sankei Shimbun, August 13), including the countermeasures worked out to cope with the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
　　　Pointing out that many Japanese are relieved to learn the procrastinating prime minister with the big ego is finally resigning, Professor Tomoaki Iwai of the Law Department of Nihon University commented: “The people and the media are completely tired of Prime Minister Kan. Now that he has made clear his willingness to resign, albeit belatedly, what is expected of the next leader most, I would think, is an ability to heal the nation.”
　　　However, healing Japan will be possible only under an approach which runs completely counter to what Mr. Kan has pursued. With changes in international circumstances compelling Japan to swiftly shift its domestic and diplomatic policies, we must absolutely deny almost all of the ideas and policies of the departing prime minister. Instead of functioning as a capable political leader, Kan during his premiership of slightly more than a year has remained a mere civic activist, lacking a grand vision for the nation’s future.
　　　In point of fact, with his parochial and pessimistic view of the world, Mr. Kan’s policies have caused the nation’s economy to shrink while failing to bring out the potential of Japanese national power as a full-fledged member of the international community, reducing Japan to a society with a maximum, not minimum, level of unhappiness, and completely wearing out the nation in the process.
　　　Nevertheless, he has proudly declared he has “a sense of accomplishment.” This is sure proof that he obviously is incapable of viewing himself objectively because of his inordinate narcissism. That Kan cannot view himself relative to others further indicates he is extremely insensitive to people, things, and happenings around him, even though there appears to be nothing physically wrong with his eyesight. How could a prime minister in such a sorry frame of mind have ever hoped to cope effectively with the problems of the ordinary times, let alone the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima reactor disaster? Kan is known for his innate tendency to speak before he thinks, an inability to take follow-up actions, and a propensity to fall into self-contradiction. That the political fund of the prime minister who has advocated clean politics continues to be enveloped in darkness is one example of his serious lack of credibility.
　　　In a previous column, I described in some detail a scandal involving Mr. Kan’s political fund managing body, the Soshi-kai: this organization made contributions amounting to 62.5 million (approximately US$780,000) to the “Citizens’ Association for a Change of Administration” (hereafter, the “Citizens’ Association”) -€ a political organization whose ideals are virtually identical with the leftwing Citizen Party (headed by Takeru Sakai) from which it has splintered off. The eldest son of one of the former leaders of the far-left Japanese Red Army is a member of this party. (His now deceased father Takamaro Tamiya, along with his mother Yoriko Mori, was suspected of having abducted Japanese citizens from Europe to North Korea in the 1980s.) During an Upper House budgetary committee meeting held on August 11, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Shoji Nishida revealed a new fact concerning the scandal involving Kan. Nishida claimed that the Soshi-kai contributed to the Citizens’ Association 50 million (approximately US$640,000) in 2007, and that it ran short of cash temporarily afterwards, its balance sheet registering a deficit. The Soshi-kai actually was in no financial condition to make so huge a contribution at the time, but the contribution was supposed to have been made anyway -€ at least on paper.

Channeling Funds
　　　During the Diet session, Nishida questioned Kan: “Mr. Prime Minister, it simply cannot be possible for the accounts to show deficits like this under such circumstances, can it? Won’t you admit that the records in your balance sheet are false?” In a futile attempt to counter Nishida, Kan meekly asked:
　　　“Why do you say it cannot be possible?”
　　　Nishida further pointed out that on May 8, 2007, the accounts of Kan’s fund managing body showed a deficit of some 3.57 million (approximately US$46,000) and on May 14 another deficit of some 6.58 million (approximately US$84,500), while there were no records whatsoever of any borrowings. This fund managing body of Kan’s could not possibly have made so large a contribution when its books showed no cash reserves or any records of borrowings. And yet Kan dared ask Nishida why he thought it would not have been possible for his body to make the contribution in question. It was only natural for Nishida to reproach Kan, saying “No more of your nonsense, Mr. Prime Minister. I wish you had answered my questions more sincerely.” How could Kan’s body give a political party such a huge sum of money in the absence of cash reserves? Was there a slush fund hidden somewhere, or did they falsify the accounts? Either way, the situation surrounding Kan’s funds proves to be highly dubious. This lack of accountability is irresponsible and unpardonable, especially in view of the fact that approximately 85 percent of the political funds available to the DPJ come in the form of government subsidy to political parties, i.e., taxes levied on the people.
　　　Raising the possibility that the Soshi-kai’s contribution to the Citizens’ Association was actually not recorded in its account in the first place, Prof. Iwai pointed out:
　　　“Mr. Kan explained that overseeing contributions was part of his duties as a responsible officer of the DPJ. But if that was the case, the ruling party should have made the contribution more openly, instead of through Kan’s fund managing body. The reason why the party failed to do so was likely that it was the kind of money that the party could not handle openly. At any rate, I assume it was an extremely inept transfer of funds, to say the least. I suspect that, because the ruling party could not give out the money outright, it had the fund channeled through Mr. Kan’s private fund managing body, which presumably became the nominal provider of the contribution.
　　　Why did the DPJ have to go to the trouble of having Kan, who was then its acting president, make the contribution, on paper, to a dubious political party deeply involved with North Korea and the abduction of Japanese nationals? Thirty-four tormenting years after her daughter Megumi was abducted by North Korean agents at the tender age of 13, Sakie Yokota expresses her bitter grief: “God will never overlook insanity of this kind.” It seems only natural for everybody across Japan, let alone Mrs. Yokota, to be infuriated by the appalling fact that, of all people, the prime minister who has the heaviest responsibility to resolve the abduction issue, has actually been making huge contributions to a political force dead set on backing a candidate whose parents were accused of abducting Japanese nationals to North Korea. (The candidate in question was running for a seat in the city assembly of Mitaka City, a suburb of Tokyo.)
　　　Doubts surrounding Kan’s political contributions have brought into the open even darker questions concerning other contributions DPJ members have made or received. In 2005, 17 municipal assembly members affiliated with the Citizen Party each contributed to DJP Diet members Eiichiro Washio and Yasuko Komiyama, as if by common consent, 1.5 million (roughly US$19,230) -€ the maximum amount allowed as an individual contribution. In turn and as if in unison, Washio and Komiyama each contributed to the Citizen Party 25 million (roughly US$320,000) -€ a sum virtually equaling the combined total of donations received from these 17 local politicians.
　　　It is clear from the government’s official gazette that, while contributing to two members of the Diet, each of these 17 members of municipal assemblies is known to have consistently made contributions amounting to roughly 1 million (US$12,800) to several political parties annually, such as the Citizen Party, in the past few years. This means that, with the sums given to Washio and other Diet members included, these local politicians have annually been making political contributions between 5 million (US$64,000) and 6 million (US$77,000) per head to political parties and organizations.

Japan Still Under Complete Control by Bureaucrats
　　　Keiji Furuya, an LDP lawmaker, questions the origin of the funds for these contributions matching -€ or sometimes exceeding -€ the annual remuneration for the average member of a municipal assembly. I strongly believe that several Diet members, including Prime Minister Kan, should make themselves accountable for their close ties with the Citizen Party as well as the questionable flow of the funds. But then, I seriously doubt if the prime minister, known to sweep inconvenient problems under the rug, will dare fulfill his accountability in this regard.
　　　At a time when such an ill-functioning prime minister is finally about to resign, the people of the nation should not feel relieved, but should clearly imprint on their minds as voters how untrustworthy the words of inept and ineffectual politicians and political parties are. For example, let us take the new system of leadership by politicians that Kan promised to secure as a means of eliminating control by the bureaucrats -€ a system whose realization Mr. Kan repeatedly emphasized he was absolutely committed to. To what extent has Mr. Kan actually achieved his goal? Clearly the reform effort has been a failure, helplessly allowing bureaucrats to have their own way even more vigorously than when he took over as prime minister more than a year ago.
　　　In August two years ago, I took up this matter in the Japanese version of this column as it looked quite clear the DPJ would take the helm of state before long. At the time, I warned that the nice-sounding slogans chanted by Kan and his party that they would ban so-called “ama kudari” -€ the “decent from heaven” migration of senior civil servants to the private and public sectors -€ would be bound to give way to what is known as “gen-eki shukko,” a system which allows a significant number of middle-aged and elderly bureaucrats to work in these sectors lucratively while retaining their bureaucratic rank until they eventually return to their respective ministries and agencies.
　　　The proposed reform of the civil servant law actually dates back to the LDP administration of Shinzo Abe (September 2006-September 2007), which banned each minister’s secretariat from serving as an intermediary for the “decent from heaven.” Meanwhile, although Kan banned these secretariats from serving as intermediaries for senior bureaucrats facing retirement age, he created a loophole by allowing them, as well as those younger than they, to work in the private and public sectors while retaining their bureaucratic rank. Taro Yayama, a well-respected critic versed in matters involving the reform of the civil servant system, is intensely critical of Prime Minister Kan and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku for the problems they have created with the “gen-eki shukko” system they forged. Yayama had this to say:
　　　“By allowing bureaucrats to work in the private and public sectors while retaining their rank, the government has completely made its ban on the ‘decent from heaven’ in name only. Middle-aged and elderly bureaucrats no longer needed by the bureaucracy can now expect to be seconded to the private or public sectors with impunity, drawing high salaries. While advocating a departure from bureaucratic control, Prime Minister Kan has actually come under their full control, and ended up accepting a change for the worse that is completely backward-looking.”
　　　These are the reasons why I have concluded that the end of the Kan administration should come as early as possible: even a day sooner, the better. What the Japanese need badly today is a solid political leader who outright rejects what little vision Prime Minister Kan may have had for Japan’s future and all of his policies, and helps rejuvenate Japan as a respectable nation.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 473 in the August 25, 2011 issue of The Weekly Shincho)