衆参「ねじれ」 機能不全見せつけた臨時国会

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Dec. 5, 2010)
Diet session reveals Kan govt failures
衆参「ねじれ」　機能不全見せつけた臨時国会（12月4日付・読売社説）

The nearly-two-month extraordinary Diet session ended Friday.
　ほぼ２か月にわたった臨時国会が３日、閉幕した。

However, no deep deliberations on policy issues were held in the session. Instead, only the malfunctioning of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government was exposed. Without rethinking its strategy completely, the Kan Cabinet will not be able to survive the ordinary Diet session to be convened early next year.
　「熟議」どころか、政権の機能不全を露呈した国会だった。戦略を抜本的に練り直さない限り、菅内閣は来年の通常国会を到底乗り切れまい。

The government was able to pass only about 30 percent of the bills it sponsored in the session. This demonstrates the Kan Cabinet's shortcomings in implementing policies.
　政府提出法案の成立率が過去最低水準の３割台にとどまったことは、菅内閣の政策実現能力の低さを物語っている。

In the so-called divided Diet in which the opposition controls the House of Councillors, the government and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan initially looked for "a partial coalition" in which they hoped to cooperate with opposition parties depending on the policy and the bill.
　政府・民主党は当初、参院で野党が多数を占める「ねじれ国会」で、法案・政策ごとに野党と連携する部分連合を模索した。

However, the Kan Cabinet's approval rate dropped substantially after it mishandled foreign affairs such as its responses to the collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast Guard patrol boats off the Senkaku Islands, and the nation's relations with Russia over the northern territories issue. It was natural that the Kan Cabinet was forsaken by New Komeito, whose cooperation it had asked for over the fiscal 2010 supplementary budget and other issues.
　だが、尖閣諸島沖での中国漁船衝突事件の対応、北方領土問題など外交で大きくつまずき、内閣支持率が大幅に下落した。補正予算などで協力を求めた公明党から見放されたのも当然だ。

Ozawa scandal lingers

The politics-and-money scandal involving former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa is no closer to resolution, either. The bottom line is that the prime minister has never exercised his leadership over the issue. This has just reinforced the public impression that the DPJ is unable to clean its own house.
　小沢一郎元代表の「政治とカネ」をめぐる問題も全く進展しなかった。菅首相は結局、リーダーシップを発揮せず、民主党には自浄能力がないとの印象を一層強める結果となった。

Though he once declared he would support the party as a foot soldier, Ozawa kept refusing requests by DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada to attend the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics in the House of Representatives. Not only that, Ozawa is trying to pressure the DPJ leadership by showing off the solidarity of party members supporting him.
　小沢氏は「一兵卒」として党を支えると公言しながら、岡田幹事長が衆院政治倫理審査会への出席を再三にわたって要請しても、拒否し続けた。それどころか、小沢氏支持派の結束を誇示して執行部を牽制(けんせい)する動きも見せている。

The government's 2009 report on political funds revealed that Rikuzan-kai, Ozawa's political funds management organization, collected the largest amount of funds that year among political organizations. In addition, it is suspected that funds of the defunct Japan Renewal Party flowed into Rikuzan-kai, which allegedly used them to pay off a loan from Ozawa.
　小沢氏の資金管理団体「陸山会」については、２００９年の政治資金収支報告書で突出した資金集めの実態が明らかになった。加えて、旧新生党の資金が「陸山会」に流れ込み、小沢氏からの借入金返済に充てられたと見られている。

We believe this only makes Ozawa's accountability even heavier.
　小沢氏の説明責任は、一段と重くなったと言わざるを得ない。

Ozawa is soon to face mandatory indictment based on the decision of a Tokyo inquest of prosecution committee. This will be a heavy drag for the DPJ as nationwide local government elections scheduled next spring approach.
　小沢氏は検察審査会の議決により、強制起訴される運びだ。民主党にとっては来春の統一地方選に向けての重い足かせとなる。

Impact of censure motions

A new focus of attention is how much impact censure motions against Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, a linchpin of the Kan Cabinet, and Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Sumio Mabuchi will have on the political situation.
　今後の焦点は、内閣の要である仙谷官房長官と、馬淵国土交通相に対する問責決議の影響がどこまで及ぶかだ。

The opposition Liberal Democratic Party will adopt a stern posture against the DPJ at the upcoming ordinary Diet session. For one thing, the main opposition party will not consider Sengoku and Mabuchi as cabinet members, said Ichiro Aisawa, the LDP's Diet affairs chief.
　自民党は仙谷、馬淵両氏を「閣僚として受け付けない」（逢沢一郎国会対策委員長）とし、通常国会での対決姿勢を強めている。

The prime minister will sooner or later reach a deadlock in the Diet unless he hangs tight and works very hard to break the impasse.
菅首相は、よほど腰を据えて局面打開を図らなければ、早晩行き詰まってしまうだろう。

The Kan administration is facing a variety of policy issues such as a hike of the consumption tax rate, relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture and Japan's participation in negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiatives.
　菅政権は、消費税率引き上げや普天間飛行場移設、環太平洋経済連携協定（ＴＰＰ）参加など数々の政策課題に直面している。

It must construct a new political framework to solve these problems by considering a bold partnership with an opposition party. To make this happen, the government and the DPJ need to quickly change policies based on election pledges the party had made for the 2009 House of Representatives election, which have already fallen by the wayside anyway.
　野党との大胆な連携も視野に課題解決への枠組みを構築しなければならない。そのためにも、破綻をきたしている政権公約からの政策転換を急ぐ必要がある。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 4, 2010)
（2010年12月4日01時47分 読売新聞）