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Mainichi interview with Bill Emmott: How to view the Koizumi legacy?

Former Economist editor Bill Emmott recently sat down for an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun, and his comments on the Koizumi administration are very good:

I think that it’s right to criticize some part of Koizumi’s reforms for causing this increasing income gap, because the Labor Law reform that his government introduced is directly responsible for this widening gap between rich and poor by creating the conditions under which 30 percent of the labor force are in part time or temporary employment, with much lower benefits. So I think that a new government needs to find a way to change Japan’s Labor Law and remove this incentive for cheap labor and employment and to equalize the rights for all types of workers: full time, part time, contract … there’s no justification for having different rights for different types of workers.

Absolutely!

Koizumi’s Labor Law reform was not a piece of market fundamentalism or a free market-type reform. It’s not included in the market textbook that you should establish a two-tier labor market and strip away protection from one part of the force. So I think that it’s right to criticize the Koizumi administration for that, but it’s not right to say there should be no market-based reform.

Of course, reforms to the labor laws began before Koizumi’s administration, but the income gap became much more notable under his watch. Long term, the question is how this will affect how Koizumi is viewed. Shorter term, can better reforms be put in place in order to equalize the legal status of Japan’s workforce? (I’m not 100% sure about the word ‘rights’ here, but that’s more philosophical/legal hair-splitting rather than practical/economic.)

At any rate, the full interview is here.

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