Newly elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced his Cabinet lineup Oct. 4 after pledging that “careful and tolerant” politics would be a hallmark of his administration.

Looking back on the nearly nine years that Kishida’s two predecessors held power, it is clear that “carefulness” and “tolerance” were two qualities missing from the administrations headed by Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga. They will be remembered for their unilateral changes in the government’s interpretations of laws, abuse of the ruling coalition’s dominance in the Diet and tendency to turn a deaf ear to dissenting voices and remove people with different opinions.

It is unclear whether Kishida will be able to deliver on his pledge. If voters come to view him as being under the thumb of Abe and other influential bosses of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, they will deliver a harsh verdict in the Lower House election this month.

POWER BALANCE CHANGE

Of the 20 members of the new Kishida Cabinet, 13 are first-timers. The rookies include Takayuki Kobayashi in the newly created Cabinet post of state minister in charge of economic security and two others who have been elected to the Lower House only three times. Two of them are in their 40s. Three women joined the Cabinet, including Seiko Noda, a contender in the recent LDP leadership election, as state minister in charge of the declining birthrate issue.

To be sure, some of the appointments seem to be political gestures to major party factions that supported Kishida in the LDP presidential election or simply a move to shorten the list of long-serving lawmakers who have waited for years in the wings. By and large, however, the Cabinet lineup indicates that Kishida has tried seriously to strike a good balance among young, middle-ranking and elderly party members in the formation of his team and kept his promise to promote young and mid-level lawmakers to important posts.

But Kishida’s picks for the new party leadership are more tilted toward the powerful. He appointed Taro Aso, who served concurrently as deputy prime minister and finance minister throughout the Abe and Suga administrations, as LDP vice president, and Akira Amari, a close ally of Abe and Aso, to secretary general, a key post with strong influence over management of the party. Kishida named Sanae Takaichi as chair of the party Policy Research Council, who will be in charge of compiling the party’s campaign platform for the Lower House poll. Takaichi made an unexpectedly strong showing in the party election thanks to Abe's wholehearted support.

The appointments raise hopes of a change in the way policy decisions were made under the strong leadership of the prime minister’s office during the Abe and Suga administrations, which reflected the power balance between the government and the party.

During his presidential campaign, Kishida, who himself served as the LDP’s policy chief in the Abe administration, argued that the balance of power between the government and the party, two policymaking organizations that are inseparable from each other and should be on an equal footing, has been tipped in the government’s favor. The relationship between the two bodies, he maintained, should not remain in its current state, which has been described as “seiko totei” (a powerful government and a weak party), but change into one of “seiko toko” (a powerful government and a powerful party).

Indeed, the views and opinions of ruling party lawmakers, who are well informed about the nitty-gritty realities in specific areas, industries and sectors, should be incorporated into government policies. But the fact is that it is the government and the Cabinet that have ultimate responsibility for policy decisions and are accountable to the Diet. Nothing should be done to allow the decision making process to lose transparency or make it unclear where the responsibility lies.

PANDEMIC STILL A PRESSING PROBLEM

In an Oct. 4 news conference, Kishida announced he will dissolve the Lower House on Oct. 14 for an election on Oct. 31. The official campaign period will start on Oct. 19. The new Kishida Cabinet’s first order of business will inevitably be to secure victory in the election. But the new administration will have no time to waste in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of new cases has been declining steadily, easing the strain on the health care system. But the Sept. 30 removal of restrictions through the lifting of the state of emergency declaration and pre-emergency measures against the pandemic will inevitably raise levels of economic and social activities. The government needs to make meticulous preparations for dealing with a possible “sixth wave” of infections this winter.

Under the Suga administration, three Cabinet members--the health minister, the minister in charge of economic revitalization and policy efforts to cope with the pandemic and the minister responsible for the vaccination campaign--played leading roles in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Some LDP policymakers criticized this system as a case of “too many cooks spoiling the broth” and called for integrating the functions into a single chain of command in the new Cabinet. But the division of roles among the three ministers remains in place after all.

The three new ministers in charge, health minister Shigeyuki Goto, economic revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa and vaccine minister Noriko Horiuchi, are all rookie Cabinet members. Policy coordination among them will test the leadership of the prime minister’s office.

By reappointing Toshimitsu Motegi and Nobuo Kishi as foreign and defense ministers, respectively, Kishida has taken a step to prevent disruptions in foreign and defense policies. But his move to establish the new post in charge of drafting and promoting new economic security legislation, which will be aimed at countering China’s expansion, and appoint Takaichi, a vocal champion of sharp defense spending growth and the introduction of military capabilities to strike enemy bases, to the ruling party’s policy chief could lead the new administration to focus more on confrontation with China than on bilateral dialogue. Kishida should swiftly lay out a policy vision for improving Japan’s troubled diplomacy with its neighbors.

ELECTION PRIORITY

The schedule of the Lower House election set by Kishida is extremely tight with only 17 days between the dissolution of the chamber and election day, the shortest in the postwar period.

The extraordinary Diet session was convened on Oct. 4 after two and a half months of ignoring the opposition parties’ request for such a session, based on a constitutional provision. But the session will be closed immediately after party representatives ask Kishida questions about his policy speech.

An Asahi Shimbun editorial urged Kishida to secure an opportunity for debate with opposition leaders, either in the form of a Budget Committee session or face-to-face party head debate, before the election. We believe that such debate would be a good and visible first step toward a shift away from the political approach adopted by Abe and Suga, who showed utter disrespect for the Diet and disregard for the importance of explanations. It would provide an opportunity for voters to form their own judgment about the policy agendas of the ruling and opposition parties prior to the poll.

But Kishida has not responded to the call and opted for the earliest possible date for the Lower House election. After the resignation of a prime minister who lost the trust of the public, the LDP’s presidential race was of huge interest for the public. Kishida’s decision on the election schedule apparently reflects his desire to seek a public mandate while his Cabinet still maintains its initial momentum, a clear political ploy intended only to serve the party’s interest.

As he announced his candidacy for the party election, Kishida said, “The nation’s democracy is in crisis as public trust in politics, the foundation of democracy, has seriously eroded.”

But Kishida has disavowed any intention to order a new investigation into the issue of Finance Ministry officials falsifying public documents related to the dubious sale of state-owned land to the Moritomo Gakuen educational institution. He has also given the crucial party post of secretary general to Amari, who has yet to clarify his responsibility concerning a money scandal that surfaced five years ago. These moves cast serious doubt on his commitment to the challenge of restoring public trust in politics.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 5