Ibuki Bunmei's Anachronistic Madness

Ibuki Bunmei (Kyoto District #1, 9 elections to the Diet, 75 years of age) is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. His appointment to the post just over a month ago, a reward for his having supported Abe Shinzo in the Liberal Democrat Party presidential contest, represents an insult to the people of Japan.

Because is it poor form to separate the act of speaking from the acts of thinking or feeling.

Ibuki gave ample evidence of the threat his mouth poses to common sense and common decency in lecture to a study group for LDP politicians in Gifu City on February 9. Given the national discussion over corporal punishment in light of the suicide of a star student at Osaka’s Sakuranomiya’s high school (Link) and the forced resignation of the women's national judo coach for having beaten, kicked and otherwise abused his charges (Link), the party's views of corporal punishment came up.

Ibuki decided he should add his voice to the national conversation. Here are verbatim translations of some of the statements Ibuki made:

"If we forbid corporal punishment, education becomes impossible."

In response to an attendee's comment that "in order to raise a human being, there are times when, from the time of childhood, beatings must be administered," Ibuki replied, "My thinking is close to yours."

When asked how corporal punishment could become a problem, Ibuki suggested, "Because there has not been a clear establishment of why corporal punishment has been included. There are too many persons who do not come to the conclusion that it has been included as the expression of the affection of one who wants [the children] to become admirable human beings or athletes. It has been said that corporal punishment is being condoned, and it is troublesome that teachers appear who have seemingly been transformed into sadists. In sum, it is the polishing of human beings."

I know what you are thinking, "Please, no more of this. This is insane."

We must press on, however:

"Nowadays, if you use even a little [corporal punishment] fathers and mothers come into the school, shouting. How much love do these parents have for their children, I wonder?"

That's right. If an adult at your child's school slaps your child -- or slaps your child 30 or 40 times -- and you go to the school in a rage, you possibly do not really love your child.

Q: What ministerial portfolio did Ibuki Bunmei hold the last time Abe Shinzo was prime minister?

Is this even a question? (Link)

Yes, nausea is the proper physical response.

That and the thought, "Ibuki-san, I have an idea. Let us test your theory of education and sporting excellence. I will stand next to you with a baseball bat. Every time you say something I find stupid, I club you with the bat. If I find your movements kind of awkward or slow, I club you with the bat.

Amaterasu how I love you. Let the polishing begin!"

Unfortunately, as the statement above by one of the attendees at Saturday's meeting indicates, the theory that corporal punishment has no value in education is off the radars of the political classes – save those among those damn Socialists and Communists and their sympathizers in the ranks of teachers and children's day care center specialists, of course.

As for the latter, when would these public servants have the time to learn how to mold children into persons of great worth, given that they waste their days trying to teach children to get along with others and take care of themselves -- oh and the official curriculum too?

Seriously, where do people like Ibuki Bunmei come from? The past, yes. Any reason why they cannot stay there?

---------------------------------
Sources:

The Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0209/NGY201302090008.html

Chugoku Shimbun
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/s/article/2013020990233525.html

Restaurant at the End of the Liberal Democratic Party

Oh, Amaterasu, no.

When I watched Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Ibuki Bunmei do his imaginary tray and chopsticks routine late last year, I thought the performance a spur-of-the-moment attempt at illustration which had veered wildly out of his control.

It turns out that operating a traditional eatery is his template for living:

Current LDP Secretary General Bunmei Ibuki outshines others with a book displaying his cooking expertise.

Titled "Ibuki Tei Shikino Shokutaku" ("Four-Season Dining Table at Ibuki Inn"), the book is a compilation of essays on his cooking prowess and ideas on foods.

Get this man an apron...and get him out of the Secretary-General's office.

Please.

Sunday's Listening In

It is hard to type away about the foibles and failures of Japan's political classes at the time when a tragedy of immense proportions is befalling the people of Myanmar. Not an entirely avoidable tragedy...but certainly one that need not have been so murderous.

I will nevertheless try.

Depending upon one's tastes, this morning's Nichiyō Tōron on NHK was either an utter waste of time or a useful, succinct introduction to why Japanese Diet politics has become moribund. Through an inexplicably bad decision, the parliamentary affairs chairmen (kokkai taisaku inchō) of the major parties were brought together to debate the hot sujets du jour: the road construction bill--scheduled for a ruling coalition override in the House of Representatives on Tuesday--and the implementation of the over-75 elder care system.

Now, as a general rule, one does not want the parliamentary affairs chairmen slanging each other at close range in front of cameras. These are men (and they are all men) who are supposed to get together and work out the schedules of bills, the terms under which bills will be debated and the corralling of one's own party's worst elements and tendencies--this in order to have the parliamentary process move along with some sense of decorum.

The parliamentary affairs chairmen need to be able to understand what the other chairman are thinking, what their pressure points are, where the others are capable of compromise.

Sniping at the other side, listing all the reasons the other side is to blame for the breakdown of Diet proceedings is the responsibility of the party general-secretaries, or at worst, the party research council chairmen. Having the diet affairs chairmen passing the buck around was tawdry--and screamed, "We need an election! Or at least a leadership shakeup!"

"A waste," thought I as the six parliamentary affairs chairmen merely quoted their party lines--which consists of little more than "It's their fault!" '" No, no, it's their fault!"--when they should have been considering what happens in the Diet after the train wreck of Monday's rejection of the road construction bill in the House of Councillors and Tuesday's override of the rejection.

The issue that was worthwhile debating--"What kind of country do we want to have?"--was never addressed.

Some might say, "of course" belongs somewhere in that previous sentence...but I am not so cynical.

Interestingly this broadcast has taken place after House of Representatives Speaker Kōno Yōhei called LDP Secretary General Ibuki Bunmei and LDP Parliamentary Affairs Chairman Ōshima Tadamori to his office to read them the riot act over the deterioration of relations between the parties in the Diet, particularly the LDP's response to the blockade of the Speaker's Office on April 30. On that day a phalanx of Democratic Party of Japan legislators had prevented Kōno from making his way from his office in Diet Building to the House of Representatives chamber where he was to gavele opent the session where the ruling coalition was to use its two-thirds majority to override House of Councillors inaction on the bill reviving the temporary gasoline tax levy. DPJ members blocked the door to Kōno's office for an hour in what was a symbolic final act of protest against the use of the override provision to pass the unpopular bill. After an hour passed, Kōno made his way to the House of Representatives chamber and the vote took place.

In retribution for the telegenic brouhaha, the LDP-dominated Disciplinary Committee began punitive action against Democratic Party of Japan Representative Mikazuki Taizō, a leader of the blockade.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Kōno told Ibuki and Ōshima on Friday to issue a cease and desist order to party members leading the persecution of Mikazuki. The young lawmaker had apologized to the Speaker in person. As far as he (Kōno) was concerned, there was no need for further punishment.

"This kind of skirmish happened because you guys are fumbling around. I want the parties talking to each other."

spake Kōno unto the pair from the LDP.

Those who may have been disturbed by the physicality of the blockade might wish to note that Kōno did not invite Hatoyama Yukio or Yamaoka Kenji or any of the other secretary generals or parliamentary affairs chairmen to the meeting.

Just his own party's men.

Makes you wonder where the ostensibly neutral Kōno thinks the greatest fault lies.

Then again, "let's all just get along" is a popular message among those far from the LDP's centers of power. Yosano Kaoru and Aso Tarō, who aside from both being on the outs in the party also are charter members of the "Persons-Less-Illustrious-Than-Their-Grandparents" Club, are coming out with a joint article in Bungei Shunjū calling for a collective LDP-DPJ formulation of next year's budget.

Sort of a "Well, gosh that was unpleasant...but don't give up on us just yet!" kind of appeal to come out and play one more time.

Funny thing about this call for comity though...if I were in the DPJ, I would be thinking that working out a budget together was what the LDP should have been inviting the DPJ to do last year.

Better late than never, I guess.

After the Yamaguchi #2 election

In a hotly contested race portrayed as a referendum against the government of Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo, Democratic Party of Japan candidate Hiraoka Hideo defeated the Liberal Democratic Party candidate Yamamoto Shigetarō by 10 percentage points in the Yamaguchi District #2 by-election. Turnout was a spectacular 69.0% of the electorate, the highest turnout for a stand-alone by-election since the system reforms of 2000.

I was hoping to write a "Dos and Don'ts" list from the results of the election. However, I can only think of a list of "Don'ts", namely:

- Don't run a newbie against local three-time winner who's only defeat, and a narrow one it was, came as the result of the Koizumi landslide of 2005

- Don't select a former Construction Ministry bureaucrat as your candidate while trying to say, with a straight face, "We have not abandoned reform."

- Don't fool yourself with "Yamaguchi is a rural, conservative bastion" type prefecture-based thinking when the district in question has a huge U.S. Marines (and soon U.S. Navy) base in it

- Don't start compulsory medical care deductions from the pensions of seniors over 75 years of age one week before an election if you have not made sure beforehand that the pension record of every single person over 75 in the district is in order first

- Don't expect to hold on to a Diet seat when you send your best candidate, the incumbent, on a career-sacrificing mission to capture the mayoralty of the district's largest city (see U.S. Marines base issue above)

- Don't announce ahead of time that you are going to vote for the reapplication of the gasoline tax no matter what public opinion might be--or without a "if-I-do-not-get-my-way-I-will-dissolve-the-Diet" public pledge from the Prime Minister on the passage of a revision of the road construction plan bill

While spin masters in the LDP will try to downplay the election as having been a lost cause from the beginning, the weight of office has probably become very, very heavy on the shoulders of LDP Secretary-General Ibuki Bunmei. As a holdover from the First Abe Administration, Ibuki is something of anomaly in the current administration--appointed to the #2 party position not because of his political savvy but because he is a faction head and a relic Meiji State fantabulist (i.e. Ibuki signals to the revisionist wing of the LDP that the party will not ignore their needs and concerns). Ibuki's only refuge is that he is not formally responsible for the outcomes of elections anymore, as he would have been in the old days. Koga Makoto's insistence he be given the post of Election Measures Chairman (senkyo taisaku inchō) and that the status of that office be raised to the same level as sanyaku posts shifts at least part of the blame for the defeat on to Koga's shoulders.

Even if this loss does not trigger a further major erosion of the popularity of the Fukuda Cabinet, it will almost certainly increase the timidity of the Cabinet and the ruling coalition as regards policy innovation and implementation. When you are down, everything difficult looks like a threat. When you are struggling, every challenge looks too unpopular to undertake.

From the Archives - Regarding the Folding of the Gasoline Tax Revenues Into the General Fund

Saturday's Tokyo Shimbun had a hilarious cartoon regarding the fight over the gasoline tax bill.

Kan Naoto, Hatoyama Yukio and Ozawa Ichirō of the DPJ try to seize the torch from a discomfitted Prime Minister Fukuda as the teal-clad Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura Nobutaka and LDP Secretary General Ibuki Bunmei rush in to protect the gasoline nozzle topped symbol. In the background, former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō lies prostrate, a gasoline nozzle by his side.
Courtesy: Tokyo Shimbun. April 12, 2008, morning edition.

Which provides an excellent excuse to dredge up a post from the archives:

Will You Compose a Requiem for the Postwar Era?

Ostensibly, the fight is about concrete and budgets.

In reality, it is a fight about the future.

Road funds debate
The Asahi Shimbun

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been stressing his "unwavering" commitment to reform far more frequently than before. Now, Abe faces the first major test of his political will to push through his reformist agenda. Talks between Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party over a proposal to funnel tax revenues currently earmarked for road construction into general-purpose funds have reached the final phase.

The focus of the debate is what to do with the 3 trillion yen or so in gasoline tax revenue, which accounts for 80 percent of overall state tax receipts set aside for road projects. Given the nation's fiscal crunch, there is undoubtedly a strong case for scrapping this system under which a sizable portion of the government's tax take is used exclusively for building new roads.

By incorporating the earmarked tax collections into the general revenue account, it should be possible to use the funds for any purpose, including road construction and repair projects.

But this policy change is not as easy as it sounds. Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised to do the same thing when he swept into office in 2001. But this turned out to be a formidable political challenge because of strong opposition from LDP lawmakers with ties to road construction-related companies, as well as local governments, ministries and the auto and oil industries. In the end, Koizumi's attempt was thwarted.

Late last year, amid the political euphoria that followed the ruling party's overwhelming victory in the Lower House election over the single issue of postal services privatization, the LDP agreed with the government to make the road funds available for general use.

But the task of shaping a specific policy was left to the new administration. So it came as no surprise that Abe would reaffirm this agreement when he reiterated his pledge to push through the reform late last month.

He said at the time, "We must accomplish this reform on behalf of the people to ensure we never again build unnecessary roads." Abe needs to push forward with the policy without allowing the initiative to be watered down.

Will he stick with his plans to advance structural reform or will he steer the LDP back to its old self by making unseemly political compromises with special-interest politicians?

Everyone involved in this fight knows that this is a death match. Once the gasoline tax receipts are folded into the general account, they will never be pulled out and reserved for road building again.

The "road tribe" in the Diet and most of the district seat holders from rural areas also know that this is their Toba-Fushimi. This battle that will determine whether the postwar superstructure survives or is swept away.

Sadly, it a battle the rural districts must lose if Japan is to have any future at all.

Many good things will perish, among them the laudable rough equality in living circumstances found throughout the country. Many towns and villages will die.

However, if anything has been suppressing Japan's economic recovery and reemergence from stagnation over the past 15 years, it has been the vain attempt to maintain existing political boundaries and administrative arrangements. Faced with demographic and international competitive pressures, the country drifts as a handful of prefectures struggle to subsidize the entire archipelago.

Why, pray tell, does anyone live in Saga? Why build new (roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, jetties) there?

To be sure, the system that has evolved, the one the LDP "forces of resistance" are trying to protect, is a finely tuned system, a non-disruptive system.

Parasitism, successful parasitism, works hard to not kill the host...but it still breeds lethargy, ambivalence and immobility in the host organism.

One of the recurring conundrums for the economics writers is the neverending wait for the reemergence of robust Japanese personal consumption (not that they don't have their theories). Surely after so much government stimulus, the populace must start spending its bounty?

When there is no multiplier effect--when a new road or bridge does not increase economic activity in a rural community and indeed it makes a once pretty bit of scenery ugly--fiscal and monetary stimulus leads to nothing.

Stimulus becomes at best economically neutral, like gray wallpaper.

Most of the reaches of rural Japan, even the areas close to Tokyo, live as parasites--they rely on the southern Kantō plain, Aichi and Fukuoka to provide the surplus the rural areas live on. Residents in those urban districts pay for the bizarre privilege of keeping voters from moving to regions where economic growth is taking place.

This has got to stop.

But without visionary, revolutionary and self-confident leadership, it will not stop.

The original December 7, 2006 post can be found here.

Waving or Drowning

Well, now we know why Fukuda Yasuo was so nervous...he does not have the party behind him.

A nonchalant LDP Secretary-General Ibuki ("Gumby") Bunmei, flanked by New Komeitō Secretary-General Kitagawa ("Magilla Gorilla") Kazuo, practically shrugged his way through the press availability after the Prime Minister's announcement. Ibuki's stunning revelation that...

"This is the Prime Minister's idea. Not the party's. We must support the Prime Minister."

...and Kitagawa's vaguely disgusted look as he echoed Ibuki's sentiment indicated they were testing out a new meaning of the word "must"-- and they did not like it. It was a "must" somewhere near "have to" only minus enthusiasm, interest or any commitment to any outcome.

Has an LDP prime minister ever gone out on a limb without making sure his party secretary-general was out on that limb with him? Has an LDP PM ever just done his own thing, without seeking the assent or the understanding of the General Council (sōmukai) or at least some ad hoc council of party elders?

If this bold, last minute maneuver does not work out--and the DPJ leadership has already prepared the groundwork for rejecting the new proposal--Fukuda really cannot go on.

At least not in any way that my poor brain can understand.

He's On To Us

Ibuki Bunmei, the increasingly unpopular Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party, has discovered the reason for the constant stream of bad news that has been undermining the image of the cabinet of Prime Minister of Fukuda Yasuo and public support for the ruling coalition:

The press is a tool of the Democratic Party of Japan.

According to an article in the today's print edition of the Tokyo Shimbun, Secretary-General Ibuki, fed up with a reporter's asking whether or not it was "difficult" (i.e., impossible) for the Diet to pass the budget enabling legislation, including the renewal of the temporary gasoline levy, by the end of the fiscal year, responded with a prophecy:

「どうしてでしょう。定例日以外審議しない民主党の態度を是認するのは報道の死を意味する」

"And why is that? Showing approval of the stance being taken by a Democratic Party that does not examine (a bill) within the set time limit except on the appointed days, this is the death of the Press!"

Well, yes, if you mean by "Press" the uncritical lapdogs of the ruling party and the Establishment. Yes, Ibuki-san is absolutely right on that score.

Later in the article he expresses shock and dismay that the Press, rather than printing only the approved leaks of the government--the endless parade of naikaku keikensha, naikaku ni chikai hito, tō no moto kanbu whose anonymous opinions are reported as fact on a daily basis--dares to facilitate the leakage of information by the Democratic Party:

「民主党に話をすると漏れて記事になってします。人間社会のルールを守ってくれないと,怖くて事前の打診できない」

"When we talk to the DJP, it gets leaked and become fodder for articles. When the rules of human society are not being preserved, then it's frightening when you cannot know aforehand the repercussions."

which is Ibuki-speak for "If the stuff the Democratic Party leaks gets printed, I cannot predict my ability to control my vengeful wrath."

...which means "Now that you people print what we tell the opposition, rather than vice versa like you are supposed to, we're scared of our own shadows to even approach the Democrats."

So be careful, members of the media--Ibuki Bunmei's on to your petty, treasonous schemes.

---------------- Image of Ibuki Bunmei courtesy of Reuters.

Later - So many strikethroughs! Thanks James.

Making it up as we go along

In a recent post, the Japan Observer noted a shift in tactics in the LDP leadership's approach toward moving the road/gasoline levy legislation through the Diet. Rather than pushing hard for the ruling coalition's 10 year, 59 trillion yen plan, LDP Secretary General Ibuki Bunmei and LDP Election Measures Chairman Koga Makoto have "begun to indicate they would be willing to compromise"--provided that the DPJ provide its own bill first.

When the Japan Observer speaks of a shift in tactics, however, he is referring only to a change in the tactics of public relations.

The parliamentary tactics have always been 1) submit ridiculously gargantuan plan, 2) wait for the Democratic Party to offer a counterplan and 3) cut a deal between the two plans.

This has not changed.

What has changed is the LDP leadership, which had heretofore been emphasizing its readiness to confront the resistance and irresponsibility of the DPJ (Manly men are we, the spawn of menly men!) now is showing more feminine side--that it is open to compromise, but only if the DPJ makes its move ("Why don't they call? Don't they know we're ready to meet them halfway?").

The currently tripping Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo echoed the softer line from Seoul.

However, the memo to "be nice" has not been able to alter the behavior of the one person for whom the repositioning could make a difference: House of Representatives Parliamentary Affairs Chairman Ōshima Tadamori.

[An asided - Ōshima is the only politician in the upper ranks of the party who manages to speak in paragraphs. Rather than spooling out the usual jumbled, emotive gurglings of his colleagues, Ōshima bangs out big architectural, intellectual structures, with almost visible beams, struts and joists. It is a real delight to hear him talk. ]

Over the weekend, he set a deadline of this Thursday (February 28) for the passage of both the budget and ancillary, enabling legislation, including the gasoline levy legislation.

Ōshima had little choice: he was starring into the abyss. Unless I am mistaken (Do you really want me to go through the list? - Editor) the House of Representatives must pass the budget by Thursday. Otherwise the budget will not go into effect (the budget automatic override period is only 30 days) in time for the April 1 beginning of the new fiscal year.

So come Friday, unless a miracle (a breakout of humility and self-awareness in the ruling coalition leadership) occurs, the whole aggressive, stinking pile of legislation will land slam on the desks of the members of the House of Councillors--leaving the parties to negotiating a compromise while the legislation is being raked over the coals in televised House of Councillors Budget Committee deliberations.

Fun, fun, fun...and not a T-bird in sight.

Smiles of a winter's night

With broad grins and a handclasp of solidarity, House of Representatives members and electoral rivals Noda Seiko (Gifu #1) and Satō Yukari (Tōkai Proportional) demonstrated their happiness yesterday at the Liberal Democratic Party leadership's clever resolution of the dispute over which of them would be running in a district seat in the next House of Representatives election.

It turns out both of them will be--Noda in the Gifu #1 seat the pair contested in 2005 and Satō in the Tokyo #5 seat being vacated by the retiring Kosugi Takashi--himself a beneficiary of the Koizumi landslide of 2005.

What a wonderful "all's well that ends well" result for both of these impressive and attractive candidates.

If only we could hear what the pair of women were thinking, behind the smiles...

Photo courtesy: Nikkei Shimbun

If LDP Secretary-General Ibuki Bunmei and LDP Elections Measures Chairman Koga Makoto think they dodged a bullet on this one, they are complete effing fools.

The Fab Four on Tour

Chairman of the LDP Election Strategy Council Koga Makoto spent some quality time yesterday with the Yamanashi Prefecture LDP Prefectural League. It was the last stop on the seven-week "Extraordinary Contrition Tour" organized by Koga for the top four executives of the LDP in the wake of the devastating losses in the July 29 House of Councillors elections.

Koga, Secretary-General Ibuki Bunmei, Policy Research Council Chairman Tanigaki Sadakazu and Chairman of the General Council Nikai Toshihiro visited the prefectural party chapters, the prefectural Kōmeitō offices and the local offices of support groups such as the Japan War-Bereaved Association (sixty-two years and counting) in 42 prefectures .

O tsukaresama deshita.

It is really too bad that the LDP has not made a special effort to document and celebrate this fantastic tour of the Japanese outback. The boys have tried so hard.

So I am trying to help.

The Yonyaku - Magical "Must We?" Tour

Magical "Must We?" Tour
(I'm a) Fool With A Bill
Lying
Buru Jei Ue
Your Budget We'll Blow
I Am So Worthless

Hello (LDP) Goodbye (DPJ)
Protected Rice Fields Forever
Pretty Lame
Baby You're a Poor Sap
All We Need's Your Votes

But I have only a sophomoric sense of humor...and I don't have Photoshop.