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Can Abe hear the music? Or is it just his broom sweeping Matsuoka under the carpet?

June 23, 2007
By Ken Worsley


In terms of economic reform and policy, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been under attack from all sides in the past few weeks. Corporate media and the blogosphere both expressed disdain, if not outright hostility, at the Prime Minister’s economic plan for the upcoming year. Commentators from both sides of the political spectrum have lamented that the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy seems to be doing little concerning economic and fiscal policy, and that since Abe has taken office, their reports seem to have been written both for and by bureaucrats.

Then, last night’s edition of the Nikkei informed us that at a Cabinet meeting Friday morning, a 15 point three-year deregulation plan was approved. Although the details are still sketchy, we’re told it may include the lowering of the firewall between banks and brokerages.

Also to be included are plans to liberalize air travel and a suggestion that parents be allowed to take their parental leave in smaller time spans, rather than taking a single uninterrupted period of time off from work.

This all sounds good, until you realize what’s at the top of the agenda: A plan to disband and do away with the scandal-tainted Japan Green Resources Agency, which is saddled with big-rigging allegations connected to disgraced former Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka. The focus of this initiative, thus, is cover up the dirty tracks leading to Abe and the rest of the Cabinet (just before the Upper House election, no less). Will the plan call for the finding of new jobs for those former Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries employees now on the payroll over at J-Green? What about that administrative reform bill?

It just got that much harder to take this administration seriously.

Filed Under Cabinet Office, Economics 

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Comments

4 Responses to “Can Abe hear the music? Or is it just his broom sweeping Matsuoka under the carpet?”

  1. John S on June 23rd, 2007 10:55 pm

    Agreed. He doesn’t have the credentials or expreience to be PM, but his father and grandfather were important, so he got it. He seemed willing to be the one who did all this horse trading and ‘reform’ for education and the constitution, which most politicians would know is useless at this time.

  2. Matt on June 23rd, 2007 11:57 pm

    What happens to this ‘plan’ if Abe is not there in two months?

  3. Ken Worsley on June 24th, 2007 8:33 pm

    Matt, that’s a good question. I assume it would be scrapped in that case. The CEFP might decide to take it up under the next administration, but that would depend on who came in and who they put in place.

  4. John S on June 25th, 2007 4:37 pm

    Ken, nothing will happen either way. J-Green gets scrapped and the rest of this is forgotten about. That’s my guess.

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