The instincts behind your Nov. 18 remarks are exactly what Japan needs to see more of, Mr. Prime Minister. Getting nowhere with the LDP's change-over-our-dead-bodies powerbrokers, you wisely reached out to the public, where you still enjoy remarkable support. You also made a plea to the pro-reform factions within the LDP, the ones who aren't being heard.
One of the more fascinating elements of Japan's 11-year funk is the lack of public outrage. Japanese are plenty miffed that politicians have mortgaged their future building bridges no one uses, roads that go where people don't and tunnels to nowhere. No one's happy Tokyo has amassed a ?666 trillion debt -- the biggest among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- and remains in recession.
Strangely, though, one sees few manifestations of public anger. One reason, of course, is that Japan's is a corporate recession, not a consumer one. Rather than foreclosing on companies that owe mountains of debt, banks have been carrying insolvent businesses. The government also has saved banks loaded with bad loans from failure. That allowed most consumers to go about their lives without serious pain.
But as you surely know, Mr. Prime Minister, households will feel pain, and soon.
Whether your reforms succeed, the global slowdown might tip many borderline companies into bankruptcy, leading to mass unemployment. Why not use that certainty to your advantage? It's going to happen no matter what you do, so why not capitalize on the trend?
One could argue that change only comes when there's pressure for it, particularly from below. Here in Japan, there's little reason for bureaucrats to change. If you're an official who's amassed considerable power and you're looking at a sweet golden parachute into one of the companies your government agency oversees, change is the last thing you want.
Even better if there are no mass protests in the street or grassroots organizations calling for change.
The youth of Japan seem especially uninterested.
In the view of Takehiro Sato, an economist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (Japan) Ltd, such apathy has, in part, "allowed the anti-reformist elements to gain the upper hand within the LDP, and this apathy towards politics among young people in Japan results from a widespread fatalism about the futility of any attempts to bring about change."
If you stand bravely before your electorate and speak plainly, you may just inspire some outrage.
Tell Japanese households that have every reason to be mad. Fire them up and stress how much you genuinely want to improve their lives. Only you need their help.
In doing so, you'll tap into the disillusionment bubbling below the surface. You can direct the public's anger toward the forces standing in the way. Chastise government bureaucrats for caring more about their career prospects than Japan's future.
Then, who knows? Perhaps phones with irate voices on the other end will start ringing all over Tokyo. No one has to tell you, Mr. Prime Minister, that Japan needs to be shaken out of complacency. It needs a serious wake-up call. Maybe the best way to do that is to awaken that sleeping and increasingly impatient giant known as the Japanese people.
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