Interview with Hatoyama Kunio

HATOYAMA KUNIO is the new Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications in the Aso Cabinet. Like Aso Taro, he is the grandson of a former prime minister, and like Ozawa Ichiro, his early political career was spent at the side of Tanaka Kakuei, the Mr. Big of Japanese politics in his day.

With brother Yukio, also a member of the Diet, he was one of the founding members of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, but left the party after a fraternal dispute and returned to the LDP. He served as the Minister of Education in the short-lived Hata Cabinet and the Minister of Justice in the second Abe Cabinet and the Fukuda Cabinet.

Mr. Hatoyama was interviewed recently by the Nishinippon Shimbun. A translation of that interview follows.

In regard to the reforms for the devolution of authority to local governments, what are your thoughts on the issue of maintaining or eliminating the local branches of national government agencies?

There are clearly too many of these offices, and unless we take a scalpel to them, we won’t be able to achieve governmental reform. There are two aspects to this: Rationalizing personnel and organizations, and incorporating local opinions into their operation. One drawback is that the presence of national government is too strong.

We should transfer those operations to local government that would be improved by incorporating citizen knowledge and the awareness of local conditions. Some have the idea that it would be ridiculous to entrust local authorities with responsibility, but I want to fight for that as the Minister of Internal Affairs. I’ll also be holding discussions with the National Governors’ Conference.

There are some concerns that road construction funds for local governments will be reduced by transferring the revenue from the special road tax into the general account.

I understand this because I now represent a district in Fukuoka rather than Tokyo, but National Highway #3 in Fukuoka would be considered nothing but a back street in Tokyo. Regional areas suffer due to their disadvantage in infrastructure. I want to give serious consideration to maintaining revenue sources (for road construction).

Prime Minister Aso Taro said that he wants to give priority to boosting the health of the regional areas. There is a close connection between improving conditions in those areas, an economic recovery, and how to obtain the funding for those roads. I’m hopeful that Mr. Aso will point the way to a solution.

What is your thinking about the efforts to take another look at postal privatization?

The system should be completely privatized, but there are too many negative aspects at present, such as the closing of 400 post offices. We must give serious consideration to the issue of universal service.

What are your opinions regarding the allocation of tax resources between national and local governments?

Measures for equalizing the distribution of tax revenue to local governments are essential. We must find a way to convert national taxes to local taxes in any way we can. We must reexamine every tax from the ground up and allocate tax revenue resources on a one-to-one basis. (It is currently 60%-40%.)

Afterwords: American journalists could learn something from the Nishinippon Shimbun reporter who conducted this interview. He asked straightforward, neutral questions in good faith and got reasonably straightforward answers in return. How hard can it be?