Ax to fall in ‘town meeting’ scandal

12/14/2006
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to punish officials, himself included, over the government’s efforts to plant questions at so-called town meetings on government policies.

Criticism has mounted over the government’s apparent attempt to covertly shape public opinion in favor of its policies.

“I, too, am politically responsible,” Abe told a Lower House special committee meeting on reforming the Fundamental Law of Education on Wednesday.

A government investigation panel on the issue released its report Wednesday.

The report said the government paid some people to ask questions, told others exactly what to ask, and requested that municipal governments stack the meetings with people who could be counted on to support the government’s stance.

Abe was chief Cabinet secretary during much of the time the meetings were being manipulated.

Abe said he will give up three months of salary beginning January. He has already taken a voluntary cut to show his commitment to the government’s financial restructuring, so his pay level is not as high as usual.

Other officials are also expected to have their pay cut.

The report said that at 15 of the 174 town meetings held by the administration of Abe’s predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, participants were hand-chosen beforehand and told to ask specific questions.

There were 29 meetings at which government plants posed as ordinary people and asked questions, according to the report.

The central government also effectively stacked 71 meetings with pro-government participants by asking municipal governments to mobilize people to attend.

Thirty-nine of those instances were because attendance was expected to be low.

Citizens at 25 meetings were paid to ask questions, according to the report.

Sixty-five people each received 5,000 yen.

Of the 15 meetings where participants were asked to pose questions of a specific nature, six were about judiciary reform plans and five about educational reform.

The committee was headed by Yoshimasa Hayashi, senior vice minister at the Cabinet Office.

The report said that it was not possible to dismiss the notion that the staged questions were aimed at manipulating public opinion.

Abe indicated he will punish officials involved as early as today.

The panel also noted another problem: the high price charged by advertising agency Dentsu Inc. to actually organize and operate the meetings.

Dentsu-run meetings in fiscal 2001 ended up costing an average of 22 million yen, the report said.

In and after fiscal 2002, the report said that the prices charged by Dentsu and Asahi Advertising Inc. continued to go beyond the bounds of common sense.

For example, 29,000 yen was charged to usher speakers from the elevators to the waiting room, all in the same building.

The report said the Cabinet Office had not fully understood the meaning of town meetings, and that the government had only pursued its own interests.

The report proposed future town meetings operate fairly and transparently.(IHT/Asahi: December 14,2006)