Japanese opposition puts stranglehold on parliament
Updated
As Japan sinks into recession, the government is facing an intransigent Opposition, stalling key bills in parliament, aimed at rescuing the economy. The Democratic Party of Japan is boycotting debates in the Opposition-led upper house, in an attempt to force Prime Minister Taro Aso to call a snap election for the more influential lower house, which is not due until September next year. The bickering could delay a government bill to allow the injection of public funds into regional and other banks, to facilitate loans to small businesses facing a credit crisis.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Japan specialist Richard Tanter at the Nautilus Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne
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LAM: Richard Tanter, first of all, ironically, the Opposition Democratic Party of Japan is citing the economy as the reason why they're stalling on voting on these crucial bills in the upper house. Can you tell us a bit about that?
TANTER: This is basically a game of electoral chicken between the two contending parties, the Liberal Democratic Party - the government which controls the lower house - and the Democratic Party of Japan - the Opposition, which effectively controls the upper house. What they are concerned about, ostensibly, is the passage of these bills, these two bills: one to do with banking; one to do with defence and the extension of Japan's naval deployment in the Indian Ocean, regarding Afghanistan. What they're really doing is manoeuvring for an election, which is going to happen some time in the next three or four months, but precisely when and under what conditions - that's really what the manoeuvring's about, I think, in this case.
LAM: So, what can the government do to get the bills through?
TANTER: Technically in the case of - well, constitutionally what happens, if the lower house has passed the bill, the upper house then normally considers that bill and votes on it. If they vote on it and reject it, the lower house can then pass it by a two-thirds majority, a kind of force majeure. Or if the upper house does not consider a bill within 60 days of its being introduced, then the government can use that two-thirds majority in the lower house, so they have to wait. The manoeuvring at the moment is particularly over the extinction of the Indian Ocean naval deployment, the maritime self-defence force deployment in the Indian Ocean. That authorisation finishes in mid-January. The government is very anxious to pass that. In fact, possibly as early as this week, in the next two or three days, the government could try and force a vote in the upper house. That's what the Democratic Party of Japan is resisting at the moment. If there's a vote and the government loses, then they can go back to the lower house immediately with a two-thirds majority. If they don't get the vote actually to take place in the upper house, they must wait for 60 days, which is why they're so anxious for an extension of the parliamentary term at the moment till the middle of January.
LAM: And, Richard, as you mentioned, one of the key votes is on this Japanese naval mission supporting the US-led operations in Afghanistan. The Opposition seems to think that Afghanistan is an American war. Is that a view that's widely shared by the Japanese, do you think?
TANTER: I think it is and I think it's a war which, although there is UN authorisation, a UN mandate for the international security assistance force in Afghanistan, I think it is widely perceived as an American war. And even many conservatives in Japan are always ambivalent about the United States, and clearly, despite the UN links to the war in Afghanistan, this is an American-led war. So there's that kind of anxiety there. And going back to the wider issues of legislation, clearly the banking legislation, you know, is also very, very important, and the government may choose to use that to make the issue for forcing through the lower house. But there is the two together at the moment.
LAM: Do you think though the Democrats might lose some support amongst the public, given that Japan is in deep economic trouble now installing these bills?
TANTER: Yes, I think there's a high risk for both sides. In that sense, it really is a game of chicken and brinkmanship, if you like, and I suspect that neither side is really very sure what will happen if an election is called. Prime Minister Aso has vacillated between saying he wants to call an election in January and waiting until March when the fiscal year ends in Japan. In fact, he doesn't have to go until 2009, while Opposition leader Ozawa has said this is a government which has never faced an election. It should go to the country immediately. And I think that that's one part of the pushing and shoving over the wider issues of Mr Ozawa's demand that the government introduce budget bills, secondary budget bills into any extended parliamentary session, because, of course, the question won't be a matter of just injecting funds; it will be the way they're injected and who benefits from those in Japan, so that will set in the context in the election campaign.
