July 11, 2020 at 13:25 JST
The government’s annual “Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform,” known as “honebuto hoshin” (big-boned policy outline), is supposed to lay out a vision of the future of our society with key medium- and long-term policies to realize the goal.
Given the societal transformation that is already under way due to the new coronavirus pandemic, it is more vital than ever for this set of policy guidelines to perform its function properly.
In recent years, however, this annual policy statement has degenerated into a hodgepodge of specific policy measures whose only function is to endorse budget requests from ministries and agencies.
Even though the government has cut the volume of the document by half from last year’s version to 35 pages in an attempt to restore its original function, it is hard to detect any notable improvement.
The coronavirus crisis has underscored this nation’s disturbingly insufficient ability to respond to an outbreak of an infectious disease.
With regard to this formidable public health challenge, the top issue of public concern right now, the draft policy outline refers to ongoing policy efforts to increase the number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests carried out daily and enhance the capabilities of public health centers.
But it fails to offer any medium- or long-term plan to reverse the policy of curtailing the budget and staff for responding to infectious diseases, which has been an element of administrative reform over the years.
One key feature of this year’s honebuto policy outline is a digital government program, which would offer a wide range of administrative services online. It makes sense to put a high policy priority on the digitization of public services, an accelerating global trend.
But policymakers should not forget that private-sector companies need to play the leading role in reinvigorating the economy.
The government should focus on improving the policy and regulatory environment for companies launching new digital businesses through deregulation and other supportive measures.
The pandemic is bound to radically change the policy priorities. Policies that have declined in priority should be reviewed and reassessed.
But the draft policy outline contains many of the existing policy programs and projects of ministries and agencies without any major change.
For instance, the document shows that the government will stick to its goal of raising the number of inbound tourists to 60 million in 2030 and continue developing such tourist infrastructures as airports and snow resorts to bolster the inflow of foreign visitors, now reduced to a dribble.
Despite the possibility that flows of people could shrink nationwide due to the spread of teleworking, the outline calls for developing high-grade highways and new high-speed Shinkansen lines.
These programs and projects are kept on the policy agenda despite growing doubts about their importance under the new circumstances. This is apparently because of difficulties in winning the consent of the ministries and agencies involved and the politicians with vested interests in them.
The government deserves to be accused of gross political irresponsibility if it continues massive deficit financing at a time when policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic demand heavy public spending.
The government’s fiscal reform goal of achieving a primary budget surplus in fiscal 2025 is not mentioned in the document.
It is glaringly obvious that the goal is now unachievable, given that there is no realistic prospect of strong economic growth pumping up tax revenue in coming years in line with the government’s scenario.
If so, the government needs to make clear its new strategy for curing the nation’s budget woes, spelling out basic principles for setting new goals and developing plans to attain them.
It is meaningless to craft another honebuto policy outline unless the government is ready to present these new basic fiscal policy principles and engage in serious debate over them.
--The Asahi Shimbun, July 11
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Noritoshi Ishida, Komeito Policy Research Council chairman, left, hands the party’s proposals about the government’s basic policies on economic and fiscal management and reform to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the prime minister’s office on June 30. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
