Subtle Balancing Needed to Form the New Government – A Big Challenge that the Prime Minister-In-Waiting Needs to Overcome

September 13, 2009 – Osaka, Japan

The DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama has been filling key posts and creating his new organization, to be kicked-off on September 16. The goal is to take the initiative away from bureaucrats, while making a “leadership unit” of coalition with the 2 allies and creating a top legislative body of the Diet management to unify the Government the ruling party of the DPJ. The challenge for Mr. Hatoyama is 4 things he needs to balance to successfully form the new organization.

First balance is the power between politicians and bureaucrats. This had been an issue for a long time, and the hot topic for manifest discussion during the General Election. Taking initiatives away from bureaucrats is the first priority the DPJ need to fulfill in smoothly managing the government to make policies stated in the manifest executed without fail.

The second balance is among the three parties to form the new Cabinet; the DPJ, Social Democratic Party and Kokumon Shinto (People’s New Party). Mr. Hatoyama aims to solve this by making alliances with the 2 parties to form coalition and involve the party heads in the Cabinet, asking what the two party heads would like to be responsible for reference. With different view on diplomatic and security policy among the 3 parties, agreeing to form a coalition did take time; therefore, the coalition cannot be said to be strong and Mr. Hatoyama would need to manage continuous delicate balancing to maintain the coalition.

The third balance is among each politician of the Cabinet. Being the first time for the DJP to become a ruling party to form the new Cabinet, no one basically would have experience as a member of a Cabinet. This means that in theory “star player” cannot be anticipated so Mr. Hatoyama needs to overcome this weakness by “team power”. This is why he is aiming to form a unit or leadership team consisting of members from 3 parties, rather than individual politicians, to play the leading role in developing policy.

The forth and the last balance is between the government (Cabinet) and the ruling party. Mr. Hatoyama aims to solve this problem by balancing the “power in theory” of a top legislative body of the Diet management between the government and the ruling party. The new body announced on September 12 is to consist of 5 members in total; 2 from the government side (Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Naoto Kan, another DPJ acting leader, as state minister in charge of the National Strategy Bureau,) and 3 from the ruling party side (Mr. Ichiro Ozawa as secretary general of the party, the No. 2 post, Mr. Hirohisa Fujii, a supreme adviser for the party, who is a strong candidate for the post of finance minister, and a diet policy committee chairman). DPJ Secretary General Mr. Katsuya Okada as Foreign Minister, who is currently a member, will be excluded in the new body. Unifying the government and the ruling party is designed to be achieved by including state minister in charge of the National Strategy Bureau who also plays the role of Policy Research Council chairman in the body; however, with this subtle balance, it is possible that the ruling party’s power wins in such case as handling of the bill.

It is a matter of fact that organization and personnel issues are sensitive and face subtle balancing, regardless of the type and size or the organization. Organization is the “mirror” of strategy and together with personnel announcement is the most powerful message from the leader regarding his policy and strategy. Though there is no “correct” answer, optimum solution needs to be created and adopted.


References:-

Shape of DPJ Emerging
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20090909a1.html

DPJ, two allies agree to form coalition
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090910a1.html

Nikkei.net articles on the new top legislative body of the Diet management (in Japanese)
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20090913AT3S1201U12092009.html
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20090913AT3S1201O12092009.html