Time to End Politics that Ignores the Provinces
"A nation's power resides in its provinces." - Roka Tokutomi (late
19th, early 20th Century novelist)
"A person who brightens one corner is a treasure to the nation." -
Saicho (Buddhist monk, 767-822)
"Creating one advantage is more powerful than eliminating one harm."
-- Yelu Chucai, retainer to Genghis Khan
The provinces are sensitive to the movements of our nation's
politicians. Politicians who disregard the provinces are drawing more
criticism. As the summer upper-house election approaches, voters are
beginning to single out these politicians. Policies affecting the
provinces will be the hot issue. While many leading politicians are
unaware of this movement, a noticeable minority is starting to pay
more attention to the outlying areas. Voters are beginning to show
signs that they'll support this group of politicians.
The big issue for Japan on the political front is going to be the
removal of politicians who disregard the provinces, small businesses
and employment. The rumblings of a larger movement have already begun.
END
If the provinces are abandoned, the nation will decline. What's
important to a country is the ability to strike a balance between the
central government and the provinces, the metropolises and the
outlying regions, urban and rural areas, industry and agriculture. If
the balance is lost, society, the economy and the government start to
destabilize. The important role of politics is to strike a social and
economic balance. However, ﾊJapan is not in balance. Neoliberal and
free-market policies have the nation teetering. The population is
concentrated in our largest cities, especially in Tokyo. The wealth is
also concentrated there, as are the corporations. Politicians show
little concern for the provinces.
We hear lots of noise about decentralization and regional sovereignty,
but the reality is that while the provinces decline at a rapid pace,
they get only unsubstantial decentralization measures from the
government. The gap between the center (Tokyo) and the outlying areas
widens. If this trend continues unabated, Japan will be weakened. The
world is sensitive to this danger. Japan is threatened by politics
that ignores the provinces, but even after we ushered in a new
administration, nothing has changed.
These words encourage a life dedicated to helping people in the dark
corners of our society. This is the starting point for a life in
politics. To live by these words, politicians must put priority on the
provinces, the small businesses and employment. But the political will
to carry through on this has been anemic lately. The spirit needed for
this work seems to be seeping out of today's journalists, economists
and career bureaucrats. This is a serious situation. In the days of
the medium-size constituency system, politicians took better care of
the provinces than they do today. Once the small-size constituency
system was ushered in, the focus turned to the parties, and the
politicians lost the will to fight for the provinces.
