Prime Minister Naoto Kan's offer to resign has apparently done nothing to end the political bickering over financing the already-delayed reconstruction and relief efforts in the aftermath of the March 11 disaster.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan's offer to resign has apparently done nothing to end the political bickering over financing the already-delayed reconstruction and relief efforts in the aftermath of the March 11 disaster.
Victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis are growing frustrated over the lack of progress in Tokyo. Now, those seeking solutions to the huge problems facing Japan before the earthquake will also have to wait longer if the current situation in Nagatacho continues.
One of the few things the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and opposition parties can agree upon these days is a basic law on reconstruction.
The law will serve as the framework for the nationwide rebuilding efforts and would establish a government reconstruction agency and put a Cabinet minister in charge of the process.
Since the bill was drafted by the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and largely accepted by the DPJ, it will likely be passed into law in the Diet.
However, the ruling and opposition parties remain split over the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 , which includes securing revenue for the rebuilding process and compensation for victims of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The compilation of the second supplementary budget is considered a prerequisite for Kan's expected resignation, which opposition parties were seeking when they submitted a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet on June 1.
But, an LDP executive said June 2 that the party will not cooperate with the DPJ on compiling the extra budget until after Kan steps down, creating a Catch-22 situation.
Kan said he would resign after a certain amount of progress had been made in the rebuilding process. Although he did not specify a date for his resignation, his words were enough to thwart the no-confidence motion.
The government panel on reconstruction is expected to submit its first proposal at the end of June. The Kan government plans to use this proposal as a "blueprint" for work to compile the supplementary budget this summer or later.
The budget, expected to total 10 trillion yen ($124 billion), will likely require the issuance of national bonds, which was avoided in the first supplementary budget in light of Japan's enormous debt problem.
The government has been unable to pass a special provisions bill needed to issue the new bonds, which would cover 40 percent of the revenue for the fiscal 2011 budget.
The LDP and New Komeito have vehemently opposed plans for new bonds, demanding the DPJ raise the revenue by retracting its pledges in the party's campaign manifesto, such as the child allowance program.
New Komeito chief Natsuo Yamaguchi said he has not seen even the slightest sign of progress in negotiations over the bonds bill. He also said the DPJ is not acting like a responsible ruling party.
Based on the reconstruction panel's first proposal, Kan planned to discuss ways to secure revenue for the rebuilding work with the opposition parties, including an increase in the consumption tax rate.
But with the Kan government now viewed as a lame-duck administration, the outlook for winning support from opposition parties on a tax hike has become even bleaker.
The wrangling over revenue sources has also put a darker cloud of uncertainty over the issue of compensating the thousands of victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Bills must pass to start the compensation payments, but that process also appears to have become lost amid the political fighting.
Kan's other policies are also losing ground.
The LDP and New Komeito had both agreed to discuss with the DPJ a draft bill on reforming the social security and tax systems, including a consumption tax hike.
But when the draft bill was presented on June 2, the opposition parties said they could not talk with a prime minister who had lost the trust of his own party members.
Before the March 11 disaster, Japan was already in desperate need for a steady revenue source. With the graying of the population, the cost of social security has increased by 1 trillion yen every year. This has created an annual 10-trillion-yen shortfall in revenue from the consumption tax.
In addition, long-term government debt has reached nearly 900 trillion yen--the worst level among developed countries.
Asked about Kan's dwindling popularity within the DPJ, Kaoru Yosano, the economic and fiscal policy minister who has advocated a consumption tax hike, only said that every Cabinet has its end, indicating the tax issue will be shelved until the next administration takes over.
Another issue that has shown no progress concerns the nation's energy policy.
At the Group of Eight summit in late May, Kan said Japan will raise the ratio of natural energy power generation to more than 20 percent of the country's total output in the 2020s.
However, a review of the current energy policy, which emphasizes nuclear power, has yet to start.
The issue of whether Japan will join the Trans-Pacific Partnership was sidelined by the March 11 earthquake. At the Cabinet meeting June 2, Kan asked Banri Kaieda, the economy and industry minister, to step up efforts to reach a resolution on this matter.
Kan still plans to visit the United States in early September to inform Washington on whether Japan will participate in negotiations over the rules of the TTP and open new discussions on relocating the U.S. Marines Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture.
However, it is unclear if Kan will be able to clarify Japan's position on these matters, let alone remain in office until September.
"Are foreign countries' governments even listening to Kan?" LDP leader Sadakazu Tanigaki said June 2.