 UNIORB: ASIAN TREND: JAPAN |
By Diana Lee
(Published by
Gate.39)| UNIORB: ASIAN TREND: JAPAN |
When Japan Inc. pulled off an amazing stunt by emerging as a global business force in the 1980s, no one had a clue how it had climbed to such height of prominence. During Japan’s golden age of prosperity and eminence, the world praised the government for managing a financial miracle after WWII, envied corporations for reaping profits around the world and marveled at the citizens for living out their dreams in modern comfort. However, the burst of the bubble economy in the early 1990s shook the financial foundation, triggering a chain reaction of firms collapsing in rapid succession. By declaring bankruptcies, these businesses have inadvertently exposed the core of ‘money politics’ put into practice by so many company executives in complicity with some politicians or bureaucrats.
The myriad business failures have involuntarily opened Pandora’s box, revealing the cozy relationship between firm management and public officials in their collusion in conducting business transactions. As bureaucracy was credited with assisting businesses and guiding the nation to affluence, it must now suffer with its cohorts the blow of economic deterioration. Apparently, similar patterns reported in scandals fuel the suspicion that public figures receiving payoffs from companies in various forms have been a common business practice. Most bribery incidences involved corporations donating huge sums of money to politicians or bureaucrats in order to obtain lucrative government contracts, political patronage or official favors. Other forms of bribery have been uncovered including entertainment, golf memberships, trips, stock options and expensive gifts.
Although most Japanese approved the way the government had guided the nation out of poverty, the public’s trust in authority has nevertheless waned over the years due to countless scandals involving politicians and public officials. When cases of bribery, scam, and embezzlement had played out in headline news, the men of ‘honorable status’ were implicated for operating dishonestly under the guise of serving the interest of the people. Being seduced by greed, money, and power, they shelved their duty to the public for self-enrichment, defiled the role of authority, and degraded themselves as not much better than white-collar criminals. Saturated with scandals connected to the government, the public could no longer ascribe political corruption to just a few political parties or isolated incidences but to the whole structure of the political system. As a result, with nowhere to turn, people’s distrust and disgust of politicians have deepened, elevating political apathy at the election polls.
It’s not surprising that corruption breeds in a closed environment where government activities are kept shrouded in secrecy for the sake of diplomatic confidentiality, where discipline is lacking to deal with individual politicians and administrators who had abused their powers, and where an authority figure embodying probity and ethics is fast becoming a fading image of the past. Even the punitive measures for misconduct (tax evasion or bribery) exact only a reprimand, a light fine, or a cut in salary. For a more serious offense, the wrongdoer is allowed to resign and collect his pension. Rarely would one see an offender being dismissed, prosecuted, and thrown into jail, except in the case of embezzlement or scam. The most appalling and unjust point about the punishment is that most of these offenders were men of clout — chiefs, section heads, mayors, governors — for their administrative posts had granted them opportunities to exploit politics as a tool of vested interests.
As corruption rears its ugly head in almost every government section and post, it’s reasonable to assume that corruption is not only widespread but also deeply embedded in the very structure of the government. After Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita’s resignation in 1989 for the Recruit stock-for favors scandal, which implicated most of the prominent leaders of the LDP and some opposition party members, the Diet majority called for a ban on corporate campaign donation to political parties, but only to have it watered down to “limited” donation. The lawmakers’ reluctance to give up an old habit states the obvious — if it hadn’t been for the huge corporate donation on which the Diet members depended for support, they wouldn’t have been in power.
In 1995, the powerful Finance Ministry was rocked with scandals — one for submitting a false report to the U.S. government regarding huge losses incurred by Daiwa Bank’s New York branch, another pertaining to the excessive wining and dining of top ministry officials by a credit union in exchange for patronage favors. Although the Finance Ministry has shown signs of embracing reforms by separating the financial supervision from the inspection division, it had recently persuaded Prime Minister Koizumi to postpone his promise to abolish or privatize government-backed financial institutions that offer retiring bureaucrats cushy posts. In doing so, the bureaucrats seemed to be more interested in serving and protecting themselves than in tackling the corruption malaise in existing policies.
The Foreign Ministry has its share of disgrace including fraud, embezzlement and bill padding by diplomats. Makoto Mizutani, former consul general to Denver, swindled $81,000 in public funds by pocketing money allocated for the renovation of his official residence and for the salary of a part-time employee. Furthermore, Katsutoshi Matsuo, who was the former head of logistics for VIP trips abroad, embezzled ¥500 million from so called discretionary diplomatic funds by padding bills and submitting false receipts for reimbursements from 1997 to 1999. He used the money for personal purchases of condominiums, racehorses, golf course memberships and other items. The very existence of a secret public fund insinuates duplicity and covertness on the part of government diplomats.
In becoming more irate with the government, some citizens took legal actions against city officials for squandering taxpayers’ money on wining and dining and excessive travel expenses. Ever since more and more civic groups demanded city officials to divulge their spending on entertainment, many cities’ expenditure expenses have been substantially curbed nationwide.
In conclusion, if the government intends to win back public confidence, it must urgently enact political reforms to sever any dubious ties to money politics, show transparency in government activities and inculcate honesty and decency in public officials; otherwise, it will see more heads roll if that is the only way to clean house.
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