How should the slipshod administration of statistical surveys be straightened out? The government and the ruling and opposition parties must engage in constructive debates on this issue.
Diet interpellations by representatives of each political party have started, in response to the policy speech made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Yukio Edano, leader of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), criticized the use of improperly collected data from the reports on monthly labor surveys by the labor ministry, saying, "The foundation of the state is being shaken."
Abe responded, "I have gravely accepted the blame for being unable to see through the erroneous handling of the matter." Yet he suggested he would not go along with the opposition party's call for Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Takumi Nemoto to be dismissed.
The blunders made by the labor ministry are too dreadful to look at. Nemoto had said the ministry's special inspection commission, tasked with probing the irregularities involving the labor statistics, "would be composed of only experts, thus making clear its neutrality."
Yet most of the fact-finding inquiries were conducted only by officials of the ministry, including some senior members. It is problematic to have given rise to doubt regarding the objectivity and fairness of the probe. A strict inquiry will be required anew.
It is also inexcusable that even though the ministry is required to keep the relevant data in its custody, the ministry has scrapped or lost some of the basic data for 2004 through 2011.
As the statistics division requires a high degree of specialist knowledge, a lack of flexibility in personnel changes has been problematic. It is a huge government office stemming from the merger of the former Health and Welfare Ministry and the former Labor Ministry, and it is apparent that oversight is hardly functioning within the ministry.
Stay on schedule with tax hike
In addition to labor surveys, errors in numeric data and the like were found in 22 key statistics collected by seven government ministries in all. It is indispensable for the government as a whole to review how statistical surveys should be conducted and processed, and what the setup of relevant organizations should be like. Legal compliance should also be ensured among all bureaucrats.
As a result of the review of the reports on labor surveys, the rates of wage increases have been revised downward. Opposition parties question the improper surveys as "fakes" and exaggerating the results of the Abenomics economic policy package.
Abe responded by saying, "This will not affect the assessment of wage trends." Abe must make efforts to wipe out suspicions by continually providing scrupulous explanations.
The biggest point at issue for the current Diet session is how to deal with the consumption tax rate hike, scheduled for this autumn.
Edano called for freezing the tax hike and asserted that efforts should be made to revive consumption. Abe made it clear that the tax rate would be raised as scheduled.
With the aging of society accelerating, social security expenses are only increasing. Isn't it necessary to secure stable financial resources through the hike in the consumption tax rate so as to mitigate people's anxiety about the future?
It was unsatisfactory that the debates among party leaders failed to deepen regarding how the social security system reforms and the fiscal reconstruction should be advanced from a mid- and long-term perspective.
While the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is intensifying its inward-looking stance, how should a free trade system be moved forward? How can the deteriorated relations between Japan and South Korea be rebuilt? Pending diplomatic issues should also be discussed robustly.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Jan. 31, 2019)
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