The administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reached the 3 month mark since its launch on January 4. So far it has followed a bottom-up approach that tries to hear bureaucrats' voices - a dramatic shift from the top-down approach to decision-making processes characteristic of the previous administrations of prime ministers Yoshihide Suga and Shinzo Abe.
This change has led to confusion, including on the government's response to the coronavirus crisis. Prime Minister Kishida seems to be grasping for the vision of the leader he wants to become.
The prime minister spoke about his basic approach to government administration at a Jan. 4 New Year's press conference. He said that the important thing when pushing forward with policy is to have trust and empathy with the public. When necessary, one must listen to many voices and make decisions resolutely. During the nine years of the Abe and Suga administrations, policies were realized from the top of the prime minister's office. There were decisions on foreign diplomatic policy by the National Security Council NSC and the acceleration of coronaviruses vaccinations. It was pointed out that those nine years had a chilling effect on bureaucrats and that accountability to the public was atrophied. Kishida stresses his ability to listen because of the lessons learned from those past administrations.
Since its establishment, the Kishida administration has held a series of face-to- face group discussions with people on the ground based on policy issues. At press conferences, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno frequently directs reporters to ask specific government ministries and agencies for details; it is striking how many fine points of policy management are left to bureaucracy.
During a November 2019 television appearance, Kishida was asked what he wanted to do most, and he responded, personnel reshuffling. He had been criticised for lacking a clear state vision, but a former Cabinet member told the Mainichi Shimbun: "The prime minister does not want to make all decisions on his own, but rather assign human resources he believes in to specific positions and make use of their knowledge and conceptual ability to advance policies." Abe and Suga took authority over personnel issues at ministries and agencies through the Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs, and made sure to appoint senior officials who would faithfully execute the administration's wishes. Abe and Suga ruled with an iron fist, using authority over personnel issues as a shield, which had a chilling effect on bureaucrats, which led them to try to read between the lines for the leaders' true intentions, a middle-ranking Liberal Democratic Party LDP legislator said. Prime Minister Kishida understands that and is trying to make a turnaround. The prime minister's aides are trying to turn things around with a lineup of their aides. Kishida has appointed right-hand man Takashi Shimada, a rare appointment for a former vice minister of economy, trade and industry. Many of Kishida's other aides are heavyweights who have served as assistant vice ministers or higher - a great contrast to the Abe and Suga administrations in which young division chiefs were appointed to become aides. Kishida wanted to appoint senior officials with strong liaisons to various ministries and agencies so that a system could draw views from the bureaucracy.
Sources close to the prime minister said the atmosphere of the prime minister's office has changed dramatically from the previous administration. A nationwide public opinion poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun on December 18, 2021 showed the Cabinet's approval rating was up 6 percentage points from the previous month to 54%, despite a situation in which new daily coronaviruses were kept low.
The negative effects of widening bureaucracy's discretionary power have begun to show.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism MLIT sought to stop taking reservations for all international flights arriving in Japan in late November, without consulting with the prime minister's office. The prime minister asked the ministry to review its policy, which was subsequently rescinded after sharp criticism.
On December 24, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology MEXT drew up guidelines banning those who had been in close contact with people infected with the coronaviruses from taking university entrance exams regardless of whether they had symptoms. This decision was made without any consultation with the prime minister's office, and was fiercely criticized online as lacking consideration for college applicants. The prime minister, the former education minister and current minister of trade, trade and industry, Koichi Hagiuda, advised him the following day to reverse the policy.
I didn't get any reports from the education ministry that the prime minister complained. It's the same as the stopping of airline reservations. Am I being taken for granted? Kishida calls it a flexible response when government policy changes. If the confusion continues, questions about his ability to govern will arise. What will Kishida do to the bureaucracy? The prime minister continues to fumble his way toward Kishida-style politics.