Gov. Higashikokubaru going national?

MIYAZAKI GOVERNOR Higashikokubaru Hideo, AKA Sonomanma Higashi, has become both a media darling and a symbol for local governmental reform in Japan since the prefecture’s voters chose him in a January 2007 special election to replace Ando Tadahiko, arrested for his participation in a bid-rigging scandal.

Several stories about the governor have been featured on this site. For example:

• Here’s a profile written right after his election describing his career as a comedian, his bad behavior and brushes with the law, his decision to go straight and study politics at Waseda University, and his intent to make his home prefecture a model in Japan for local governmental reform.
• This post describes how he dealt with an avian flu crisis immediately after taking office. The crisis had the potential to destroy his political career the same week it began; Miyazaki is a rural prefecture that accounts for 25% of chicken production nationwide. The governor handled the situation with as much poise and hands-on competence as a seasoned veteran.
• Here’s an examination of Japanese media coverage of the governor’s speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, in which seven outlets in the print and broadcast media gave seven widely varying accounts of the speech’s contents. The Japan Times even tried to spear him with a comfort woman comment, but the spear missed.
• During a press conference, the governor pointedly criticized the media and Japan’s notorious press club system, which restricts the access of reporters to politicians. It also tends to produce journalism based on press releases and minimize investigative reporting. You can read about it here.
• And here’s a report on the non-partisan political action group Sentaku, which has vowed to clean up Japanese politics. The governor is a founding member.

In addition, Governor Higashikokubaru showed a willingness to take on heavyweight opponents by challenging Kan Naoto, the acting president of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, to a debate over the government’s highway construction policies when the DPJ tried to turn the issue of the gasoline surtax renewal into a stick of dynamite and blow Prime Minister Fukuda out of office. The governor immediately put Mr. Kan on the defensive when he insisted that the debate be held in Miyazaki and that Mr. Kan drive there. (To Mr. Kan’s credit, he did drive to Miyazaki for a visit before the debate was held in Tokyo.)

The governor took office when local governments throughout the country were being rocked by the exposure of slush funds created by sham orders for products from suppliers. He initiated an investigation of practices in the Miyazaki prefectural government as soon as he started work. The investigation found that prefectural employees had stashed away 317 million yen (nearly $US 3 million) over a five-year period and turned up an additional 57 million yen in false accounting practices. The money was diverted to buy uniforms for employee baseball teams, electrical carpets, cots, tableware dryers, and blood pressure monitors.

To demonstrate the importance of reforming the money culture in local politics, one of the governor’s first moves was to slash his own salary by 20%.

Therefore, it should then be no surprise that the governor is sensationally popular in his home prefecture. His approval ratings were still hovering at 90% earlier this year. Even more astonishing, about 400,000 tourists visited the prefectural offices during the first 16 months of his term. That total is equivalent to the number of people who visited the area’s tourist destinations during the same period. Often, as many as 1,000 people come in a single day hoping for a glimpse of the governor. The highest daily figure was reached last August 14, when 5,550 came.

All this just to look at a government office building when they knew he probably wouldn’t be there.

Now how’s that for a combination: popular, quick-witted, competent, proactive, entertaining, and committed to cleaning up the cesspools of local government.

The broadcast media knows a winner when it sees one, and both the governor and Japanese television networks have become locked in an ardent symbiotic embrace. The governor gets to promote both his prefecture and himself, not necessarily in that order, and the media gets a veteran comedian-turned-politician to provide a novel but reliable form of entertainment.

It was inevitable that people would begin to ask when Mr. Higashikokubaru would begin to show an interest in a national political career. The answer seems to be: a lot sooner than some thought and many would like.

During a press conference two weeks ago at the prefectural offices in Miyazaki City, the governor was asked about a possible entry into national politics. He said:

To implement (the) devolution (of governmental authority), I’ll examine the options of what can be done at the local level and what can be done at the national level, and decide at that time which would be more beneficial and effective.

He was asked the same question during a prefectural assembly meeting on the same day. He answered:

I was driven to become governor because of my strong feeling of wanting to give my all for the revitalization of Miyazaki from Miyazaki.

The assembly members repeatedly asked if he intended to at least serve out his full term:

I want to serve in prefectural government every day with sincerity and good faith thinking of the resilience and development of Miyazaki.

Those answers sound like a man who’s looking long and hard at trading up from his seat at the governor’s mansion for a seat in the Diet. After all, a lower house election is just a year away, at most. If he planned on sticking around until 2011, all he had to do was say so.

Mr. Higashikokubaru does not hesitate to seize his opportunities, as he demonstrated by quickly plunging into the gubernatorial race in the special election last year. From his perspective, a Diet seat would have its advantages. The commute to the television studios would be a lot shorter, he’d be getting even more air time than he is now, and the national government pays a lot better.

For those who took him at his word that he wanted to reform local government in Miyazaki from within and spread those reforms nationwide, however, that would surely be a disappointment. Despite the success of his first 18 months in office, there is still plenty of work to do back home. Many would like to see him complete his unfinished business before heading back to the national stage that he once enjoyed in show business. If he approached it properly and stuck with the job, he could make local governmental reform an important part of the national political agenda and keep it there.

While he more than likely planned a shift to national politics from the start, the opportunities at the national level right now must seem particularly tempting. Japanese politics are in a state of flux that might continue for the indefinite future. There’s no denying that a quick-witted cat with national name recognition would land on his feet following the political earthquakes sure to come. The only question is how high up that landing will be.

Politicians are just like anyone else: How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they’ve seen Paris? But a return to the big city in this case would remove the spotlight from much-needed local governmental reform.

More’s the pity.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Japan’s media: More fiction than fact?
• More on Sentaku and the Miyazaki governor
• Governor questions media privilege in Japan
• Sharing the burdens