Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is facing many difficult problems

Kishida Fumio faced a conundrum: the executive branch was on its own, and it was not easy for the government to lead political revision

Page after page flipped through a pile of documents plastered with sticky notes, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroichi Matsuno glanced quickly through thick lenses, and the air at the press conference was suddenly quiet, and he did not find an answer to his question.

"Regarding the specific issue, I do not have relevant information in my hands, and I will wait for the party to report this matter." At the Chief Cabinet Secretary's regular press conference on December 1, Hiroshi Matsuno was dazed when asked about the ministry's comprehensive ban on international flights to Japan.

As the newly appointed cabinet "big butler", Matsuno Hiroichi is speechless about the current crucial epidemic prevention and entry policy, which is really a moment of "social death". It also means that Prime Minister Kishida's cabinet is unaware of the imminent exclusion of thousands of Japanese people.

On November 29, Kishida announced the suspension of the entry of foreigners from all countries and regions, unaware that he had been kept in the dark by the provincial authorities: the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MITI) made its own decision on the same day, demanding that all Japanese airlines stop booking all new inbound flights, resulting in some Japanese people being unable to return home. The directive was not reported until the Prime Minister's official residence was received 2 days after it was implemented, and it was immediately stopped.

Withdrawal of flight bans to Japan, apologies, reviews... Kishida's leadership was ignored by the provincial government as soon as he took office, and his leadership was questioned, something that was unheard of during the previous two prime ministers, when the provincial bureaucracy had always been obedient to the official residence.

From shinzo Abe to his presidency until Suga took over, the dominant politics of the prime minister's residence has been continuously strengthened, bureaucratic power has been weakened, and the government and the ruling party have shown a clear "high government and low party". After coming to power, Kishida Fumio, who considered himself a "listening politician", tried to revise the track of "one official residence is strong", but the bureaucrats who smelled the wind direction of Kasumi-seki (the name of the place in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, where the headquarters of several central administrative agencies are located, and are the administrative center of Japan) "preemptively attacked" and tested the boundaries of power of the new prime minister.

Breaking the "high political officials low"?

In the face of "Omi Kerong", Kishida Fumio first announced the ban on the entry of foreigners, although this move was criticized by the WHO as "incomprehensible", but it received praise in Japan. According to a December 5 Yomiuri Shimbun poll, Kishida's cabinet approval rating rose by 6 percentage points from a month ago to 62 percent.

Although the "sense of speed" has become the label of Kishida's anti-epidemic debut, the thunderbolt of sunny days has also followed.

On the morning of December 2, when Kishida entered the prime minister's residence, he saw reporters who had been waiting for a long time, and was unsurprisingly asked about the suspension of flights to Japan. He immediately apologized, saying: "[The directive] has brought confusion to some people. Subsequently, Tetsuo Saito, minister of land, transport and tourism, also apologized to the people through the media. In fact, both had just learned of the situation the day before.

According to the "Mainichi Shimbun", matsuno Hiroichi received a report from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism who was 2 days late in the evening after the press conference on the afternoon of the 1st, and he asked the provincial officials: "Is it really okay to stop all flights?" I hope to consider the needs of Japanese people returning home. That night, Matsuno reported the matter to Kishida through the Prime Minister's secretary.

"Please don't do this again in the future." Kishida instructed the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to reconsider flight restrictions, and on December 2 announced the withdrawal of the ban on flight reservations. Japan Airlines and Japanese preparing to return home expressed their confusion about the government's confused behavior, and the voices of distress rose and fell.

In the past, it was not uncommon for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to ask airlines to suspend flight bookings, but in times of the pandemic, a month-long ban on flight bookings involving all Japanese airlines was unique. According to Japanese administrative practice, when the provincial offices communicate important decisions with the prime minister's official residence, they are generally carried out through the deputy chief cabinet secretary and the prime minister's secretary, and no one in the prime minister's official residence knows about it, but the provincial bureaucracy "cuts first and plays later".

An unnamed provincial and departmental official told japanese media TBS that the "post-incident report" of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism was surprising. After Kishida came to power, the opinions of the various provinces and agencies increased. In the days of Abe and Suga, government departments were under the command of the prime minister's residence, and some decisions were overturned[of the prime minister's residence], but now it seems that there is more autonomy in judging. This is also the result of Prime Minister Kishida's desire to break away from Abe and Suga's strong governing style and highlight Kishida's color. ”

The opportunities of the Prime Minister and his official residence have been strengthened since the implementation of administrative reforms by former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto (who served from 1996 to 1998), and former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (who was in office from 2001 to 2006) has also enjoyed the fruits of reforms, and the system has matured in the Abe era.

Looking back at the previous two prime ministers in power, Abe set up the Cabinet Personnel Bureau in 2014 to manage the appointment of posts at or above the deputy directorate level of the provincial government, and then established a decision-making mechanism for a small number of cabinet members to deal with issues. As a result, the prime minister and chief cabinet secretary can directly control the bureaucracy by bypassing the ministers, deputy ministers and administrative officials of the provinces, which further imbalances the "high and low officials" and gradually lose their independence of the bureaucrats who act as the "stabilizer" of society.

In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Abe Lightning instructed the suspension of classes, competitions and work across the country, which was opposed by many local governments. Subsequently, without coordination with the health department, he distributed small cloth masks that had been ridiculed as "Abe masks", and was again criticized. According to the Asahi Shimbun, the prime minister's office has been obstinately a bureaucratic inactive and lazy to introduce new policies. Suga did the same when he was chief cabinet secretary and prime minister, weakening the "territorial awareness" of the provinces and offices and concentrating policy decisions on the prime minister's residence.

Ahead of the LDP presidential election, an unnamed employee of Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare told Japanese media: "In terms of epidemic prevention policies, the prime minister's official residence is often 'difficult for strongmen'. Hopefully, the next prime minister will not get too involved in Kasumi. ”

Kishida, who emphasizes "listening power," elaborated on the principles of governance after becoming prime minister: "We will pursue cautious and tolerant politics. He made it clear that he would avoid a concentration of power. With the establishment of the Kishida Cabinet, Kazuhiro Sugita, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazumi, who had been used heavily in the Abe and Suga governments, and Prime Minister Assistant Officer and Izumi Hiroshi, both stepped down, and Takashi Hatoda, former vice minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, became prime minister's chief secretary.

An article published in Japan's shinoki shimbun magazine AERA pointed out that the "official residence bureaucracy" who has long commanded the provincial offices has withdrawn, and the new personnel front has brought a sense of peace of mind to Kasumi-kan, and the situation of the official residence is strong may change.

The crisis of "political high and party high"

In the Japanese political chess game, the linkage between the two sides and the government and the party constitutes a system of power. The pattern of "high political officials and low officials" (politicians dominating bureaucrats) and "high political party low" (the government over the ruling party) has formed over the years, which has made this game of chess show a "one-sided" trend.

After Being elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida Fumio first started with the relationship between the government and the Liberal Democratic Party and changed the strong position of the official residence. He described the relationship between the government and the party as "the two wheels of the car", and the decision-making should follow the "high political and high party" to highlight the characteristics of personal governance.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, before the interim diet, Kishida Fumio had frequent contacts with senior Liberal Democratic Party officials, and on November 16 and 18, he went to the LDP headquarters to meet with party vice president Taro Aso and party secretary to toshimitsu Motegi. At noon on November 22, three people appeared at a Tokyo metropolitan hotel for dinner to discuss the future operation of the regime and expressed a strong desire to improve relations between the government and the Liberal Democratic Party.

A relevant source of the Liberal Democratic Party told Nikkan Hyundai that Kishida was actually uniting factions led by Aso and Motegi in the name of "high political high" to try to break Abe's strong influence in the party, "a man who makes good use of the plan." ”

However, changing the decision-making structure is not an easy task. According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Kishida used the economic countermeasures under the epidemic and the preparation of the 2022 budget as a "touchstone" for reform, and jointly formulated them in the form of discussions involving all members of the Diet, but they were thrown into chaos due to the confrontation between the prime minister's official residence and the party's executive department. In addition, during the formulation of the LDP pact, HSanae Takashi, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, disagreed with Kishida over his conservative policies.

"Abe and Takashi control the LDP, and the prime minister may be just a façade." An unnamed politician who has served in the cabinet told Shiji News Agency that while Kishida Fumio tried to revise the government's dominance of politics, it may lead to a situation of "high party and low government."

Taro Kono, who is now the head of the Liberal Democratic Party's Broadcasting Bureau, once reminded Kishida that "if it is not 'high in politics and low in party,' it would be troublesome, because it is the government that bears the responsibility of explaining in the Diet." ”

Because Kishida Fumio has been criticized by the outside world for lack of courage, from cabinet appointments to policy implementation, "Kishida color" has become a major concern, although he is constantly groping for a different leadership line from the previous two prime ministers, but now he is walking on thin ice on the road of revising the official residence to dominate politics.

Source: The Paper