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Series of Adverse Revisions of Medical and Social Security

Systems Are Major Attack on People's Living Conditions

Next I will take up some domestic questions.

The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty question is not the only thing on which LDP politics has abandoned its present and future responsibility to the people. What LDP politics has done and intends to do on the people's living conditions and welfare raises another very serious question.

The draft Resolution refers to how the people's living conditions are depressed and how Japan's economy is distorted under "capitalism without rules." It gives a detailed analysis of the situation covering various aspects such as working conditions, social security, small- and medium-sized enterprises, the financial system, agricultural problems, environmental problems and nuclear power generation problems.

In comparison with the conditions and standards in other capitalist countries in the world, Japan has many surprising backward aspects and distortions in its economic and social life.

After the draft Resolution was published, the case of illegal profit-making in partnership with "sokaiya" (corporate fixers) involving the Daiichi Kangyo Bank and all the four major securities companies was revealed. Facts have also consistently come to light that the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (Donen), which has the serious responsibility for the nation's nuclear power policy, actually abandoned the task of controlling radioactive-related facilities and radioactive waste material. International criticism of Japan's environmental policy has increased, with the international meeting on preventing global warming taking place in December in Kyoto. These examples show more clearly than before the actual situation in Japan, arising from "capitalism without rules."

But LDP politics completely lacks any recognition and consciousness of the situation. What the LDP intends to do is to make its already bad politics worse and further depress the people's living conditions, which is just the opposite of what Japanese society needs. This is the core of the current serious situation.

Adverse Effect of the Extra 9 Trillion Yen Burden on the People and Economy

The first thing to note is that the Hashimoto cabinet at one stroke increased the consumption tax rate to 5%, ended the special tax reduction and adversely revised the medical care system, with the result that an additional 9 trillion yen new burden has been imposed on the people. In comparison with past LDP governments, there is no precedent for this cabinet's outrageous politics.

The JCP strongly opposed this policy. When I asked questions in the Diet last January, I focused on this issue. First, I pointed out that this policy would cause unbearable hardship for the people. Second, this policy would deal a serious blow to what the government calls the two main pillars of Japan's economy--personal consumption and the management of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Therefore, this will have a grave negative effect on Japan's economy. By showing this in detail, I demanded that the government withdraw this bad policy. In the Diet deliberations that followed, the JCP questioned the government, making this the main focal point. But, in disregard of the criticism and the points the JCP made and the people's voices of protest, the government and the LDP forced through the policy of imposing the additional burden of 9 trillion yen on the people.

The situation subsequently developed as we had pointed out. For example, the consumption tax rate increase to 5% has been a heavy drain on daily family budgets. In addition, the adverse revision of the medical care system implemented in September is another unbearable burden, which was reported in detail in the media. The burden arising from this adverse revision of the medical care system has strained family budgets so much that not only patients, but also hospitals and pharmacies throughout the country are calling for help, expressing serious concern with angry voices. This has been reported every day. Consultations in hospitals on medical fees and hot lines set up by medical and welfare organizations have had a flood of complaints. Some patients reportedly said they have to pay medical fees several times greater than they used to pay. Others complained that if they have to be hospitalized, they can not afford to pay, and can not pay the high medical fees even if they get less medicine.

The effect that the 9 trillion yen burden has had on economic performance is also very serious. Soon after the consumption tax rate increase to 5%, the government continued to broadcast the optimistic view that it would have little effect on the economy and that the economy was getting better. But this "prediction" turned out to be completely false and baseless. It is now obvious that the economic situation has got worse since the tax rate increase last April, with the subsequent drop in the people's purchasing power and the financial difficulties of the small- and medium-sized enterprises. Many economists and private research institutes unanimously recognize this as fact.

These days even the government can no longer deny this fact. According to the quarterly report on national income by the Economic Planning Agency, published on September 11, real GDP between last April and June dropped by 2.9%, compared with the previous period. This means a GDP drop of 11.2% on an annual rate, which is the biggest drop since the first oil shock 23 years ago. As reports show, this situation of Japan's economy became a big issue in the G7 meeting in Hong Kong of governors and central bank presidents from the seven major industrialized countries.

These facts prove that the government policy of imposing a 9 trillion yen burden on the people has been a total failure. "Economic performance is unchanged" and "the present economic slowdown is temporary"--such excuses no longer work.

Moves for Consecutive Attacks on People's Social Security and Welfare

But without serious analysis on the consequences of their wrong policy, the government and the LDP are planning further attacks on the people's living standards. Just after the bill for adversely revising the medical insurance system was passed by the Diet, and before the act came into effect, they started to prepare further adverse revision of the medical care system.

According to the "fiscal structural reform" bill which will be submitted to this autumn's extraordinary Diet session, the social security system is to be further adversely revised at least in the next three consecutive years by brutal budget cuts with no "inevitable increases."

Also last August, the three ruling parties published a plan for adverse and drastic revision of the medical care system. It is especially serious that the plan mainly targets old people, as is seen in the adverse revision of the medical care payment system and the attempt to collect health insurance contributions even from old people who are family dependents. Up to now all costs for medical treatment for incurable diseases have been paid at public expense. But the government has proposed a bully-the-weak plan to come into effect from next year with a considerable increase in the patients' share of the burden.

Such a series of attacks on the people's medical care and social security are unprecedented in the long postwar history of LDP governments. Above all, the attacks are targeting socially weak people, which is absolutely unacceptable.

The LDP government is now abandoning its minimum responsibility for defending the people's living standards, which even past conservative governments maintained as a government duty.

50 Trillion Yen for Public Works and 20 Trillion Yen for Social Security--To Correct This Budget Imbalance Is a Pressing Task

The government and the LDP are making continuous attacks on the people's living standards, medical care and welfare by using "financial bankruptcy" as the main excuse. But this is a totally selfish argument to shift the responsibility for its bad government onto the people. What is bankrupt is not social security finance, but politics which serves the interests of big business at the expense of the people's living conditions, and LDP politics especially indulged in squandering resources by putting forward as a most important aspect of national policy, public projects which benefit the major general construction companies.

Symbolizing the nature of LDP politics on fiscal policy as against the people's interests, we have the two contrasting figures--50 trillion yen expenditure on public works and 20 trillion yen expenditure on social security. In Japan, national and local governments only spend 20 trillion yen a year on social security, but expenditure on public works projects by national and local governments and public corporations reach 50 trillion yen, which is 2.5 times the amount on social security. No other country spends their taxpayers' money in such an inappropriate way as Japan.

Let us look at the extraordinary increase in public expenditure on public works projects and the low expenditure on social security, compared to the position in other countries. The only reliable figures for international comparison of public expenditure on public works projects are "general government gross fixed capital formation." But public investment expenditure and land purchases by the "combined public and private sector," the very cause of the excessive expenditures on public works, which is peculiar to Japan, are not accounted for in the figures. Therefore, the figures give a very modest picture of Japan's abnormal excessive expenditure on public works projects. In fact, the figures for "general government gross fixed capital formation" include only about 31 trillion yen of the total 50 trillion yen expenditure on public works projects.

With this in mind, please listen to the following account.

Even using this very modest figure to show Japan's increasing expenditure on public works projects, Japan's position of expenditure on public works as a percentage of GDP, is over three times greater than the position in the United States and the European countries. In contrast, Japanese government expenditure on social security as a percentage of GDP is only half to one-third the position in these countries. In terms of government budget allocations, many countries spend on social security four to eight times the amount they spend on public works projects, but Japan spends very much more on public works projects than on social security.

If the total 50 trillion yen is counted, the difference with the other countries would be much greater. From these figures, it is clear how Japan's politics of serving major general contractor construction companies has distorted Japan's fiscal situation to an abnormal extent.

Moreover, expenditure on public works has become a hotbed of terrible budgetary waste in the name of it being "public"--it is no exaggeration to say that this is being shown by numerous instances throughout the country and is now common knowledge among the people.

Many people severely suffer from poor welfare provision and all Japanese people throughout the country want to get their social security provisions raised to at least the European level. To meet their needs, it is an urgent task to drastically change this inverted economic and fiscal structure.

In addition, there are many problems which politics must be responsible for resolving--to correct the high medicine prices which give the pharmaceutical companies unfair guaranteed big profits; to end plutocratic corruption which exploits welfare-related projects; and to end the cozy relations between politicians, bureaucrats and financial circles in the welfare and social security sphere.

Instead of ignoring these problems and casually arguing for more burdens on the people, the present inverse use of taxpayers' money must be fundamentally changed and the problems arising from the series of scandals such as those involving high medicine prices seriously tackled--this must be the responsibility of all politicians who seriously want to work in national politics, irrespective of different political affiliations.

Hashimoto Cabinet's "Administrative and Fiscal Reforms"--Perpetuation of Inverted National Finance and Administration

But the government and the LDP are pursuing defiant politics for perpetuating and permanently establishing this inverted political and economic structure.

First, they plan to submit the "fiscal structural reform" bill to the extraordinary Diet session. Despite the pretext that it is necessary to solve the financial crisis, the bill calls only for very small cuts of wasteful public works projects which are the main cause of the crisis. On the other hand, the bill basically calls for consolidating over a long period the "system of spending 50 trillion yen a year"--to be more specific, 470 trillion yen over ten years, an average of 47 trillion yen a year. In contrast, the government plans to cut social security expenditure, including an over 60% cut of the inevitable increase of expenditure. The aim is to systematize adverse revision of social security over three consecutive years. And this plus this year's adverse revision means drastic cuts over four years in the social security system.

Second, the "reorganization of government ministries and agencies" involves a number of problems. The recently published "interim report" is a plan to emphasize the Hashimoto cabinet's stand on "administrative reform," and it only proposes changing the boundaries of the administrative work of the ministries and agencies. It does not heed the important tasks from the people's viewpoint, such as ending the corrupt relations between politicians, bureaucrats and financial circles; changing the administrative orientation from big business-first to people-first; and taking basic steps against wasteful government expenditure.

Furthermore, the plan clearly shows the Hashimoto cabinet's basic position which conflicts with the people's interests. Many problems have been pointed out, such as strengthening the cabinet's powers, upgrading the Defense Agency to the Defense Ministry and privatization of the postal administration.

Especially on the above-mentioned matters at issue, the plan intends to cut social security administration, which actually requires to be very much strengthened to catch up with international standards, while further expanding big public works for the benefit of general contractors by setting up two big ministries to be responsible for public works: The "National Land Development Ministry" and the "National Land Preservation Ministry." This is a completely defiant plan.

It raises the serious concern that agricultural affairs will be taken over as just a sideline of the ministry which is responsible for public works, the "National Land Preservation Ministry." If this is put into practice, it means that there will be no minister or ministry, with "agriculture" in its title. Among the Summit countries this will be a really exceptional case. We cannot but deplore LDP policy for its extreme neglect of agriculture to such an extent.

Plutocratic and Corrupt Politics Now Exceeds the Limits of the People's Patience

In the wake of the imposition of the 9-trillion-yen additional burdens on the taxpayers, these plans which the Hashimoto cabinet is pursuing as the central task of its domestic policies, viz. the adverse changes to the health care system and social security are now becoming the most serious issues around which the contradictions are sharpening between the people's living conditions and LDP politics. If we allow such outrageous LDP policies to be pursued, the basis for supporting the people's living conditions will not exist in a 21st century Japan. Once established, the position could be irrecoverable.

Ignoring the people's criticism of successive plutocratic corruption scandals, the LDP is continuing its adverse and plutocratic politics with no self-reflection. In addition to their continued soliciting of political donations from companies and organizations and grabbing the state subsidies to political parties, the second Hashimoto cabinet gave Koko Sato, who was found guilty of taking a bribe in the Lockheed scandal case, a cabinet post with responsibility for the Hashimoto "administrative reform." This has exposed the hopeless nature of LDP politics. The mass media bombarded the Hashimoto cabinet in rapid succession: This appointment is an appalling outrage without parallel anywhere in the world; this has revealed the reality of Hashimoto's administrative reform.

Surrounded by the people's overwhelming criticism and denunciation, the Hashimoto cabinet has been forced to make Sato resign, and I hear that the necessary steps will be taken today.

But this does not end the responsibility of Prime Minister Hashimoto for appointing a bribe taker as a minister, and the LDP's lack of self-criticism about its money politics. We will severely question Prime Minister Hashimoto specifically as the person who has the power to make appointments.

This whole matter proves that both P.M. Hashimoto and the LDP completely lack political ethical standards and respect for the people's will. The LDP's character of being immersed in plutocracy and corruption has now gone beyond the limit of the people's patience.

It is important to enhance the people's struggle for defending and developing their life and social security and confront the bad LDP government, and develop public opinion to say, "We can no longer allow the situation of plutocracy in which business circles and big companies are the main players," and develop this into real power for achieving democratic changes in politics.

Prospects for Democratic Government Which Will Institute Democratic Reforms as a National Necessity

LDP politics has an overwhelming basis in the Diet due to the system of all the parties, except the JCP, allying themselves with the LDP. However, it is inevitable that the contradictions between the people and LDP politics will get deeper as a result of such bad politics. In the political arena, the parties which have allied themselves with the LDP are busy arguing and competing among themselves over the choice between the "LDP-SDP-Sakigake" and the "conservative-conservative alliance" setups. This confrontation reflects their contradiction with the people in a complex form, but it is clear that there can be no solution in the people's interests as long as such forces remain within the "all-support-LDP politics" framework.

In today's Japan, the course for meeting the people's interests can only be found by changing direction for democratic reform as set out in this JCP Congress draft Resolution. I want to stress that herein is the political basis of the perspective of "LDP-JCP confrontation" as the pivot of future political developments, and the national necessity for our aim to establish a democratic government to institute democratic reforms in the early part of the 21st century.

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