Good-bye to the Koizumi Administration

On September 26, the Koizumi Administration's term expired; Mr. Koizumi was in office for approximately five and a half years. Incidentally, the Japan Labor Flash was first released a few months after he took office.

At the beginning of his term, Mr. Koizumi openly stated that he was prepared to destroy an old-fashioned Liberal Democratic Party in order to change Japan, since only structural reform could pave the way for the nation's survival. Words like "reform" and "I will change Japan" gave the Japanese people the impression that he might truly be able to change the country, and won him popularity considerable even among anti-LDP people.

Declaring that Japan's finances would collapse sooner or later if they stayed in the red, he undertook steps to repair the financial system. At the same time, he implemented quite a few policies aimed at shifting the focus from the bloated, centralized public sector to the private sector, together with measures to deal with the astronomical amount of bad loans at banking institutions.

Regarding labor issues, the Koizumi Administration has been committed to revision of the old labor laws with an eye to strengthening the international competitiveness of Japanese firms and improving the working environment so as to satisfy the diverse needs and lifestyles of workers.

Without Mr. Koizumi, it might have been impossible to give up the practices of partisan appointments to the Cabinet and stimulating the economy through public work projects, or to (just about) privatize the postal service, though there is criticism that the privatization is inadequate.

Evaluations of the Koizumi Administration obviously vary considerably: it was during Mr. Koizumi's term that a "competitive, efficient society," "freeters and NEETs," and "a society with internal inequalities" frequently made the headlines, and that the number of suicides increased alarmingly.

It is a major task to curb the cost of social security payments and construct a better safety net, while restoring sound state finances at a time when the birthrate was decreasing and the population ageing. In the end, Mr. Koizumi left some of his pledges unfulfilled, including restricting the cost of issuing deficit-financing government bonds. Issues which his administration faced and was expected to solve were somewhat too many and some of them were too tough, and eventually he did not "destroying" the LDP. Although he was in office for a relatively long term for a Japanese prime minister, five and a half years was not enough from the outset to solve all of these complex challenges.

The Japan Labor Flash will continue following the development of the policies that the Koizumi Administration left unsolved, as well as the policies of the next administration led by Koizumi's successor, Mr. Abe.