Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

392 SESSION VI
Japanese economy is always bad because the LDP
has remained in power with only short periods of
interruption. It may rather be that the vested interests
that support the LDP are quite large and powerful, such
as people in contruction industry who must be loyal to
the LDP for their own economic benefit.
Japanese media have provided both news and editorials
to inform and warn citizens about pork barrel such as:
(Public works should serve the public, The Japan Times,
Aug. 21, 2000)
‘.... The party is supposed to be trying to phase out
programs that have outlived their usefulness and to
classify those related to information technology as
public-works projects. This is being taken with a grain
of salt because public spending on IT-related projects
could also encourage pork-barrel politics and further
inflate the budget deficit.’ Or:
‘......The JDA (the Japan Dental Association) provides
a typical example of “triangular collusion” among the
LDP, bureaucracy and industry. Its former chairman is
charged with bribing members of a government panel
on medical insurance in an attempt to increase payments
for dental services. In April, five men were arrested on
bribery charges...... Prime Minister Jun’ichiro Koizumi
has vowed to “smash the LDP”. The implication is that
he wants to eradicate the party’s pork-barrel politics,
which have been practiced largely by the Tanaka
faction and its successors. The planned privatization of
highway corporations and postal services—which have
been patronized by these factions—would have hit hard
the former Hashimoto group and other special-interest
legislators.’
However, privatization was the answer to civil
society’s claim. Even in the period of budget deficit,
the construction state survived with monies from
government subsidies for expressways and the zaito
or the second budget from the Post Office’s saving
account. The expressway-related public corporation was
already under privatization and the Post Office was still
a problem. This situation was a confrontation between
vested interests and the forces of reform. But it can be
claimed that announcement for LDP reform by Prime
Minister J. Koizumi led to the success to LDP in the
2005 election after the dissolution of parliament caused
by problems with the Post Office privatization.
Amakudari
Amakudari, (literally, ‘descent from heaven’) is life after
retirement for bureaucrats with well-paid sinecures in
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
firms that they had previously supervised. Amakudari
is the cause of collusion, favoritism, corruption.
Amakudari also provides a two-way street for the
exchange of information and views.
However, the National Public Service Law bans centralgovernment
employees from accepting jobs at private
firms for two years after their retirement if the firms
have close ties to the ministries and agencies where the
employees worked during the last five year prior to
retirement. (Kingston: 2004, 103) Such prohibition
can be useful to a certain extent, but not in all cases.
Even without a post or work in a business firm, retired
bereaucrats can still use influence with bureaucrats in
charge to obtain favors or preferential treatment for
businesses.
How to curb with amakudari is beyond the scope of
this study because I found out that there is no Japanese
civil society mechanism which manages this situation.
THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN COMBATTING
CORRUPTION
There are many words having a similar or identical
meaning with civil society, such as non-profit
organizations (NPOs), non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), and philanthropic or citizen groups. Therefore,
I research the meaning of civil society. In this paper,
civil society is defined following the definition given
in “The State of Civil Society in Japan”. Civil society
consists of sustained, organized social activity that
occurs in groups which do not belong to the state, the
market, or the family. (Pharr: 2003, xiii) Civil society
is a group of citizens having a common purpose for a
better society or the public good.
Citizenship and civil society are concepts capable of
disturbing the status quo and encouraging critical
governance. Civil society ought to be characterized by
the continuing definition of various relations (the civil
order) by subjects of free will on the grounds of mutual
consultation, understanding and decision. (Hirowatari:
2002, 4)
Civil society in Japan only began to play a more
important role around the end of the 1980s when the
government’s mismanagement and corruption scandals
were unveiled. Civil society played an active role in
demanding that national and local governments enact
freedom of information or information disclosure
laws. Citizens wanted to have more influence in
setting priorities by redefining as well as shaping the
public interest and then challenging agendas set by the