Poor leadership letting Japan down

Mori (centre) and aides: Policy is decided behind closed doors, not in Parliament

By William Horsley

Japan faces a combined political and financial crisis, with uncertainty over the future of its Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori, and its finance minister having spoken in the past week of the nation's finances as "close to collapse".

Observers say there is little prospect of a swift end to Japan's problems, because of the apparent lack of will on the part of its leaders.

With the stock market again sliding, the economy seems sure to get worse before it gets better again.

A well-known Japanese political adage says simply "An inch ahead is darkness". That sums up the lack of openness and accountability which has been an inherent weakness of Japan's political system throughout the modern era.

The immediate cause of Japan's current political crisis is the series of blunders made by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa warned of a financial collapse

The most recent was carrying on with a game of golf after being told of a major incident in which an American navy submarine sank a Japanese fishing boat in the Pacific with much loss of life.

But the basic malaise stems from the fact that questions of national leadership, as well as policy, are regularly decided not in the open, in parliament, but behind closed doors, by a few old men at the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Barring a political earthquake, that is not likely to change soon.

Dangerous debts

It is now clear that the failure of leadership of Japan's politicians is largely responsible for the acute financial crisis which now looms, after the respected finance minister Kiichi Miyazawa let slip his assessment that the country's public finances are "very close to collapse".

Mori was reviled for his reaction to the sinking of this Japanese vessel

For many years successive Japanese governments have curried favour with their business supporters and other groups through lavish spending programmes.

As a result Japan's level of government debt is dangerously high.

There are fears of a new wave of bankruptcies among private banks, too, because lax regulation has allowed them to hold onto a mass of bad debts dating from the age of fast growth and easy lending.

With the stock market again sliding, the economy seems sure to get worse before it gets better again.

Radical long-term solutions are called for, but none are even on the table for discussion.