A Fallen Premier Reflects Upon Japan’s Year of Tumult

In an interview with The Times, Kiichi Miyazawa, the first of three prime ministers to be ousted in the past year of political tumult in Japan, gave his views on developments in his country:

On a diminishing sense of urgency in Japan about economic frictions with the United States:

“We’ve made all sorts of efforts for countless years, but our surplus with America hasn’t gone down at all. We’ve come to a kind of resignation, a feeling of giving up hope. . . . There also has been a reaction in Japan to (the Clinton Administration’s) harsh approach. And . . . leadership in taking up this problem directly at the top level has disappeared in Japan. . . . Concern has fallen.”

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On Japan’s trade surplus with the United States:

“During the last 20 years, exports from Japan have been ‘built into’ American society--not just consumer goods but capital goods--even into (defense) sectors. A part of the two nations’ economies has been integrated.”

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On security policy:

“(Japan) doesn’t have any inclination to become a military power or to change the constitution. Therefore, the framework for Japan’s security into the 21st Century is the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty structure as a stabilizer for all of Asia. . . . What Asian countries, including Japan, are most worried about in the 21st Century is the direction China will take. The American presence is very important.”

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On sending noncombat troops on U.N. peacekeeping missions:

For decades Japan paid no attention to “whatever happened overseas, and we got fat doing that. The Gulf War forced us to go through great soul-searching. We gave money--$13 billion. But we didn’t even shed perspiration.” Condemnation of that hurt. Japanese concluded they “probably should have perspired” to give something beyond money but aren’t prepared “to shed blood, whatever the cause.”

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On why $300 billion in government pump-priming has not yet resuscitated the economy:

“The economy was swallowed up . . . in a black hole (of deflation). . . . Everyone misread the depth of the black hole. I too misread it.”

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On bad debts that have crippled banks:

“The fact that banks couldn’t fulfill their normal function really hurt the economy. . . . Money, which is the blood of the economy, didn’t flow smoothly. . . . I offered a government rescue to the banks.” But they rejected it. They feared if they accepted taxpayers’ money, the government inevitably would “start meddling in their business.”

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On the future of the economy:

“Downsizing has come to Japan. But while Japan too must do restructuring, its labor customs--lifetime employment, seniority--have many merits. Managers won’t easily mimic the United States. . . . This has been a terrible recession, but Japan’s potential has not been uprooted.”

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On economic reform:

“What Japan has learned through this recession is cost-consciousness. . . . Reforms will emerge from what recently has been called the ‘destruction of price structures.’ But deregulation can only occur slowly. . . . Japan is a safe society because government protection has been broadly extended. It’s a regulated society.”

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On political and economic turmoil:

“It’s appealing to try to see change in the economy in parallel with politics, and then conclude that both are in a terrible mess--a shambles. . . . (But) what has happened (in the last year) is proof that changing cabinets ceaselessly is not a change. We must wait until an election is carried out under the single-seat districts to see what will happen.”

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On efforts by the opposition to form a new conservative party to oppose Miyazawa’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP):

“I don’t think the Renewal Party (of former Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata) and that bunch . . . will be able to build a substantial, consistent platform that is different from ours. I am very skeptical that politics will develop into a confrontation between two big conservative parties. If it does, it would develop into a battle over revising the constitution. That would be a misfortune.”

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On Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama abandoning 40 years of Socialist ideological policies:

“I don’t think the Socialists have lost their function. We conservatives will support a market economy, smaller government, deregulation. But a market economy has its faults. There is a need for a party that speaks out for weaker people who lose out in competition . . . and other problems, like environmental issues, social welfare.”

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On voters’ attitudes:

“The LDP was viewed as tainted, rotten. (Former Prime Minister Morihiro) Hosokawa didn’t have that image at the beginning, and people saw him as a change after more than 30 years of LDP rule. . . . (Now) most voters are apathetic about politics. There’s no crisis facing Japan from the outside. Despite the recession, no layoffs have occurred. People don’t face a bad situation in their daily lives. So they have little interest in politics.”