Kan’s Domestic Hurdles
Needed: Prime Ministerial Leadership
But if Kan has met the challenge of unitary policymaking under the cabinet, he has yet to solidify a system for strengthening the prime minister’s leadership role in this process.
In the run-up to the 2009 general election, the DPJ promised to strengthen the prime minister’s policymaking role by creating a new National Policy Bureau that would be responsible for drawing up key national policies and establishing budget priorities and guidelines. When Hatoyama formed his cabinet, he established the National Policy Unit pending the passage of legislation needed to create a full-fledged bureau. Contrary to expectations, though, the National Policy Unit played virtually no role in budget planning, and the only major national policy it was responsible for drafting was the New Growth Strategy. Meanwhile, action on legislation the cabinet submitted to the Diet to upgrade the National Policy Unit to bureau status, which would have legally defined the organ’s powers within the cabinet, was delayed in the wake of Hatoyama’s sudden decision to resign.
The role of this national policy organ has shifted several times since the Kan cabinet took over. In July, Kan indicated that he wanted it to function as an advisory organ to assist the prime minister on long-term policy questions. When Kan reshuffled his cabinet and appointed Genba Kōichirō minister of state for national policy, Genba announced that the National Policy Unit would function as originally envisioned. Then, in October, Kan indicated that the unit would take on both functions, that is, formulating major national policies and setting guidelines for the budget, as originally envisioned, as well as advising the prime minister on long-term policy. With this in mind, the unit was expanded in late October. But whether it can function effectively in accordance with this blueprint has yet to be seen.
The biggest unresolved issue surrounding the National Policy Unit is how to apportion responsibility between the minister of state for national policy and the chief cabinet secretary. Organizationally, the National Policy Unit is under the Cabinet Secretariat, which is headed by the chief cabinet secretary. Yet the minister of state for national policy is appointed independently, and his or her relationship with the chief cabinet secretary remains unclear.
Since the development of key national policies usually involves more than one ministry or agency, inter-agency liaison and coordination is needed to prevent and reconcile conflicts. This has traditionally been the role of the chief cabinet secretary. But if the National Policy Unit is in charge of drafting major policies, it follows that the minister of state for national policy is responsible for inter-agency coordination and reconciliation as part of that process. As long as the division of labor between the two remains vague, and the center of the policymaking process is unclear, the prime minister will find it difficult to exercise strong political leadership in national policy.
Takenaka Harukata
Graduated from the University of Tokyo, where he majored in law. Joined the Ministry of Finance. Subsequently received his PhD in political science from Stanford University. Is now a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. Author of Sangiin to wa nani ka (What Is the House of Councillors?) and other works.
