The Finance Ministry's new top administrative lineup has finally been established.
Budget Bureau Director General Shigeaki Okamoto has been appointed administrative vice finance minister. Takeshi Fujii, senior deputy commissioner of the National Tax Agency, has been promoted to commissioner.
These appointments ended an extraordinary situation in which two of the three posts at administrative-vice-minister level had been left vacant for as long as three months. Taking advantage of the personnel reshuffle, the ministry must drastically reform its organizational culture.
Since last year, the ministry has been hit by a series of scandals. The altering of documents to approve the sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, and the alleged sexual harassment involving the ministry's administrative vice minister, were both unprecedented incidents.
These incidents caused a huge loss of public confidence in the Finance Ministry, which had been said to be the "most powerful government office."
It was not surprising that Finance Minister Taro Aso said, "It is extremely important for the ministry to tackle its restoration while sincerely reflecting [on the past incidents]" in a news conference to announce the new appointments.
The ministry will newly establish an in-house council to promote compliance, a panel that will be chaired by its new vice minister, Okamoto. The ministry said it will tackle such matters as legal compliance and internal control, which have been undertaken by the minister's secretariat, by inviting experts as advisers.
The ministry's aim is understandable, but it makes no sense unless accompanied by workability. The important thing should be consistently to take such steps as the reform of ministry officials' awareness.
Compile budget with pride
In the case of the scandal involving Moritomo Gakuen, it was revealed that the ministry's main office in Tokyo had forced the Kinki Finance Bureau to alter the documents. How to achieve smooth communication between ministry offices is a challenge to take on.
The series of scandals turned the people's eyes anew to how the relationships between politicians and bureaucrats should be.
It is necessary to establish a fair and highly transparent bilateral relationship so as not to cause doubt on the part of the people.
To fulfill its primary jobs, such as budget compilation and tax system reform, it is essential for the ministry to regain public trust.
In compiling the fiscal 2019 budget, there are many factors that will put pressure on the ministry to increase spending.
As for social security expenditures, which account for the biggest portion of the budget, the ceiling on an increase in spending that had been in place until fiscal 2018 has been abolished.
It has been decided that pump-priming measures, which will be carried out following a consumption tax rate hike to 10 percent scheduled for October 2019, will be studied separately from the ordinary budget.
Ahead of a House of Councillors election and unified local polls set for next year, it is certain that demands for a boost in spending from ruling party lawmakers and others will become stronger.
The ministry's screening of budgetary requests should not become lax as a result of the decline in its clout, which was caused by the series of scandals.
The ministry is called on to revamp itself as soon as possible and tackle the budget compilation by maintaining its pride as the government office in charge of screening budgetary requests.
A meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 economies will be held in Japan next year. Japan should make all possible preparations to display leadership as the host nation.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 28, 2018)
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