By Takuya Nishimura, APP Senior Fellow, Former Editorial Writer for The Hokkaido Shimbun
The views expressed by the author are his own and are not associated with The Hokkaido Shimbun
You can find his blog, J Update here.
January 27, 2025. Special to Asia Policy Point
The 2025 ordinary session of the Diet began January 24. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivered the annual policy speech, in which he emphasized government decentralization – the transfer of power from Tokyo to local communities. Regional revitalization looks to be the highest priority in the Ishiba administration, surpassing diplomacy, the economy, and political reform. The 150-day session of the Diet, after which the Upper House election is scheduled, will be a stern test for Ishiba.
In the traditional policy speech to open an ordinary session of the Diet, the prime minister discusses the political direction of the administration for the year ahead. The nature of the speech is different from that of an opening speech in an extraordinary session. That speech deals with the temporary priority of policies. Thus, in the speech to the extraordinary session last November, Ishiba addressed three policies on his agenda -- diplomacy and security, the revitalization of Japan, and disaster prevention.
But in his January 24 speech, Ishiba focused instead on regional revitalization, devoting 30% of the speech to it. Ishiba has named his project for regional revitalization “Reiwa version of remodeling the Japanese archipelago” and its goal is to achieve a “pleasant Japan.” He had described this vision earlier in his first press conference of the year on January 6.
“Remodeling the Japanese archipelago” is a concept that originated in the Showa era, which was former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka’s campaign policy for the LDP presidential election in June 1972. Tanaka was – not coincidentally -- the political mentor of Ishiba. The novelist Taichi Sakaiya promoted “pleasant Japan” in his book Japan in the Third Time (2019), following “strong Japan” and “prosperous Japan.” Sakaiya served for Keizo Obuchi Cabinet as the Minister in charge of the Economic Planning Agency between 1998 and 2000.
Obuchi was one of “the seven secretaries” in the former Noboru Takeshita faction. Takeshita succeeded to the great political power that Tanaka built. Ishiba can be said to follow in the footsteps of the Tanaka group’s efforts to decentralize the governance of Japan. This approach is the opposite of the goal of greater centralization embraced by another political stream in the Liberal Democratic Party that included such prime ministers as Jun-ichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe.
The views expressed by the author are his own and are not associated with The Hokkaido Shimbun
You can find his blog, J Update here.
January 27, 2025. Special to Asia Policy Point
The 2025 ordinary session of the Diet began January 24. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivered the annual policy speech, in which he emphasized government decentralization – the transfer of power from Tokyo to local communities. Regional revitalization looks to be the highest priority in the Ishiba administration, surpassing diplomacy, the economy, and political reform. The 150-day session of the Diet, after which the Upper House election is scheduled, will be a stern test for Ishiba.
In the traditional policy speech to open an ordinary session of the Diet, the prime minister discusses the political direction of the administration for the year ahead. The nature of the speech is different from that of an opening speech in an extraordinary session. That speech deals with the temporary priority of policies. Thus, in the speech to the extraordinary session last November, Ishiba addressed three policies on his agenda -- diplomacy and security, the revitalization of Japan, and disaster prevention.
But in his January 24 speech, Ishiba focused instead on regional revitalization, devoting 30% of the speech to it. Ishiba has named his project for regional revitalization “Reiwa version of remodeling the Japanese archipelago” and its goal is to achieve a “pleasant Japan.” He had described this vision earlier in his first press conference of the year on January 6.
“Remodeling the Japanese archipelago” is a concept that originated in the Showa era, which was former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka’s campaign policy for the LDP presidential election in June 1972. Tanaka was – not coincidentally -- the political mentor of Ishiba. The novelist Taichi Sakaiya promoted “pleasant Japan” in his book Japan in the Third Time (2019), following “strong Japan” and “prosperous Japan.” Sakaiya served for Keizo Obuchi Cabinet as the Minister in charge of the Economic Planning Agency between 1998 and 2000.
Obuchi was one of “the seven secretaries” in the former Noboru Takeshita faction. Takeshita succeeded to the great political power that Tanaka built. Ishiba can be said to follow in the footsteps of the Tanaka group’s efforts to decentralize the governance of Japan. This approach is the opposite of the goal of greater centralization embraced by another political stream in the Liberal Democratic Party that included such prime ministers as Jun-ichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe.
In his policy speech, Ishiba proposed a new residential registration system in which urban residents register with a local government to create greater connections to rural communities. He will encourage young men and women in any age return to their hometowns by creating job opportunities there. Coordination among industries, public offices and educational institutes will be essential to this revitalization program.
The other policies in the speech were ones that Ishiba had already proposed or that previous administrations had pursued. As part of his economic policies, Ishiba will propose wage hikes at a higher level than increases in consumer prices and tax exemptions for small amount of personal asset management, including such financial products as NISA or iDeco. Both of these were the brainchildren of the Fumio Kishida administration.
Ishiba’s security policy reflects his concern for better treatment of personnel in the Self-Defense Forces. “We will enhance our defense system, aiming at deterring invasion to our country by possessing independent capability for deny and remove the invasion,” said Ishiba in his policy speech. Ishiba also hopes to lighten the burden on Okinawa of hosting US Forces. Ishiba plans to raise defense issues with US President Donald Trump at their summit meeting.
As to the reform of a system that enabled the slush fund scandal of some factions in the LDP, Ishiba urged all the parties in the Diet to discuss public financial support for political activities, donations from companies, and candidate expenditures – but he did not present his own proposals.
The current ordinary session will be followed by the election of the Upper House, which takes place once every three years. Upper House members have six-year terms, so half of the house will be up for reelection. There is a tacit agreement among lawmakers that the ordinary session in a year of an Upper House election will not be extended. It is likely that the session will close on June 22 and the Upper House election will be held on July 20.
Ishiba is under considerable time pressure to corral enough votes in the Lower House, through negotiation with the opposition parties, to pass the FY 2025 budget bill by March 2, which is the deadline for the bill to automatically pass the Upper House before the new fiscal year begins on April 1. The Constitution of Japan says that a budget is approved as decided by the Lower House, when the Upper House fails in taking final action within 30 days from receiving of it.
According to an agreement among parties, Ishiba also must bring the issue of political contributions by companies and organizations to a conclusion by the end of March. If he fails to do so, the opposition parties will have cause to submit a no-confidence resolution to the Lower House at the end of the session. Such a resolution can ignite a snap election of the Lower House on the same day of the Upper House election.
