Jiro Yamaguchi, Hokkaido University Graduate School Professor, and Taro Miyamoto, (the same) report in Sekai this month on an Opinion Poll they conducted in an attempt to ascertain what kind of socio-economic system people in Japan really want. Their stated aim is to give some direction to a political situation in which rigorous and critical debate across the Diet floor has been blunted and diluted by cross-party consensus on the response to the terror threat and by rumours of a potential alliance between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (自民党) and the opposition Democratic Party (民主党). In this post, I will briefly summarize the results of the poll and the conclusions drawn by the two professors.
Their approach was to regard the Koizumi premiership as a period of structural reform in which the traditional Japanese system was discarded and a dose of American neo-liberal thinking was prescribed to Japanese society. The aim of their poll was to ascertain which of the following three paths were regarded as desirable by their respondents : (1) A clear rejection of the traditional Japanese model; (2) A clear adoption of the American model; (3) A dedicated search for an original Japanese path, different to the previous, traditional model. They recognized 6 ‘results’ from their survey :
- “A Negative Assessment of the Structural Reforms implemented under former-PM Koizumi”;
- “Serious Unease about Future Lifestyle, Standard of Living”;
- “Strong Demand for Public Services”;
- “Attraction to North European Welfare systems”;
- “Opposition to any raising of the Consumption Tax (VAT)”;
- “An assessment of the (traditional) Japanese system as a fair one”.
I will attempt to briefly summarize the main points with regard to these ‘results’.
- An overwhelming number of respondents expressed strong opposition to the ‘widening gap between rich and poor’ (格差社会) and the deterioration of public services under Koizumi. People also expressed opposition to the idea of ‘the pursuit of profit’ being a justification for any chosen course of action (on an individual as well as a political level). Despite the fact that the Koizumi premiership was a period of remarkable economic growth, very few people remarked on this as a positive result of his administration’s policies; equally, his political and administrative reforms did not receive a positive evaluation.
- Over 70% of respondents reported feeling ‘anxious’ or ‘a little anxious’ about the future with regard to their individual lifestyle. 28% reported feeling ’secure, at ease’ or ‘fairly secure, pretty much at ease’. The writers report that these results were the same across all genders, occupational fields, regions and generations. From the party political angle, 40% of LDP supporters reported a sense of optimism about the future, and, in start contrast, nearly 80% of DPJ supporters reported a sense of pessimism.
- Asked what they perceived to be the main threats to a stable lifestyle in the future, respondents overwhelmingly chose the collapse of the pension and medical treatment systems. Although the media have mainly focussed on declining share prices and the slowing economy (particularly since Summer 2007), very few respondents felt that the weakening economy posed a threat to their quality of life, highlighting instead a consciousness of collapse in the social welfare system. A significant majority of respondents chose (1) strengthening of the social welfare system (36%) and (2) limiting the power of the bureaucracy (29%) as the two improvements that need to be made to the current Japanese system. These concerns may be seen to arise from changes to company employment practices and to the traditional family-centred community; the welfare system since the war has been supported by the twin pillars of company-based employee welfare measures and family-centred local services, both of which are now perceived as ‘under threat’. With regard to measures to address the ‘rich-poor divide’, nearly 50% of respondents selected ‘employment training and government support for individual entreprise’ as the most urgent policy platform; in this area, too, people feel that rather then direct cash handouts, these measures should be implemented by public service institutions.
- When asked to choose what kind of welfare system they considered desirable, respondents chose (1) the North European model (in which the welfare system is regarded as one of the major roles of government) (58%), folowed by (2) a return to the former Japanese system (centering on the principle of lifetime employment). Less than 7% of respondents regarded as desirable ‘an American system idealizing competition and efficiency’ – this, the author notes, in spite of the Neo-Liberal reforms that have been introduced since Koizumi’s administration. Opposition to the American system is high across all party political support bases; support for a return to the former Japanese welfare system was clearly higher among LDP supporters, while supporters of the DPJ, Komeito and Communist parties tended to the North European welfare society model. The writer points out that these results are connected with the generally low evaluation of the recent structural reform program.
- The survey results show very strong opposition to the raising of the Consumer Tax as a means of providing revenue for any strengthening of the social welfare system, with 44% believing the government should pursue administrative reforms to streamline government activity and find ways to raise revenue without increasing the tax burden on citizens; 35% proposed that, rather than Consumer Tax, taxes on businesses and income tax – ie., taxes on the rich and companies – should be raised to provide revenue for the welfare system. 27% of LDP supporters approved of raising the Consumer Tax, but only 15% of DPJ supporters. A poll conducted by the government in September 2005, revealed that two-thirds of respondents felt that in order to guarantee a robust social welfare system the tax burden will have to be increased; the results of this survey show that there is a desire for the tax burden to be moved to the rich, and companies, rather than everyone in society.
- Respondents picked ‘employment support’, ‘personal relations in the regions’, and ’support for small and medium-sized companies’ as their top three priorities. Taken with the results in (4) above, the writer points out that the survey results reveal a strong attraction to and support for Japanese values of ‘harmony’ and ‘equality’ in society, with a possible awareness of the practical impossibility of returning to the previous ‘Japanese’ system.
Professors Yamaguchi and Miyamoto use the rest of the article to call for a more dynamic engagement with the issues highlighted in the survey results, appealing to politicians to make it their priority to engage with the popular will and not just be motivated by party loyalty.
1 Comment
February 25, 2008 at 11:33 am
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]