To protect and enhance life
(From The Japan Times Jan. 31 issue)

要約
「いのちを守る」鳩山政権がすべきこと

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose administration is 4 1/2 onths old, opened his policy speech for the coming year with words that bore his colors: "I want to protect people's lives. This is my wish.... I want to protect the lives of those who are born, of those who grow and mature."

Throughout his 13,600-character speech, which lasted 51 minutes — the longest for a prime minister's policy statement since 1976 — he used "lives" or "life" 24 times. He even said he wants "to protect the life of the Earth."

He called his fiscal 2010 budget — which includes an 18.3 percent drop in public works spending, a 9.8 rise in social welfare spending, a 5.2 percent increase in education and science spending, a \13,000 monthly child allowance and tuition-free high school education — one "to protect human life."

Mr. Hatoyama devoted a fairly large part of his speech to his philosophy and ideals. This emphasis in itself is good because it helps people understand what he's thinking amid the political and economic problems affecting Japan. But at a time when the Japanese economy is in difficult straits, with people worried about their future and more than 30,000 people killing themselves each year, many might have found his speech rather abstract and short of a hoped-for road map to solutions.

Mr. Hatoyama's speech Jan. 29 coincided with bad economic news. The consumer price index, excluding perishable foods, for 2009 dipped a record 1.3 percent from 2008, indicating severe deflation. The average unemployment rate for 2009 was 5.1 percent, 1.1 points worse than in 2008. The average jobs-to-applicants ratio for 2009 was a record low 0.47, down from the previous low of 0.48 (1999). Mr. Hatoyama did not say how many jobs the government plans to create. Details of the government's economic growth package won't be announced until June. Mr. Hatoyama disclosed that the government will write a long-range policy for the nation's financial reconstruction, but the schedule is not definite.

Mr. Hatoyama has set down his ideals and demonstrated his knowledge of various problems. What he needs to do is show clearly to people that he shares their sense of crisis about the situation in which Japan finds itself, work out concrete steps to resolve problems and achieve his goals, and move.

政権発足から4ヶ月余、鳩山首相は施政方針演説で「いのちを守りたい」「生まれくるいのち、そして育ちゆくいのちを守りたい」など、いのちという語を多用して鳩山色を出した。「いのちを守る予算」と称した新年度予算案は、公共事業18.3 % 減、社会保障費9.8 % 増、文部科学費5.2％増、子ども手当や高校無償化を含む。

信条や理念が大半を占めた演説は、首相の考えを示す意義はあったが、国民が将来に不安を抱き、毎年3万人が自殺する現状を打開する道筋を描いていないと感じた人も多いだろう。

同日に深刻な経済状況を裏付ける統計が発表されたが、雇用創出や経済成長の具体策を示されず、長期的金融改革の日程も確定していない。

首相は国民と同じく日本の状況に危機感をもっていることを示し、問題解決と目標達成のための具体的措置を検討し、実行に移すべきだ。