THE SUZUKI JOURNAL

【What's New】
Suzuki's News Release Tokyo has a Foreign Friend Who Is ......(24-Sep-98)

【A Party's Reform Stand】

　A letter to the editor of the International Herald Tribune form myself
regarding “Washington has a Japanese friend who is threatening trouble
” by Gregory Clark (IHT Opinion, Sep. 9) was published （IHT Letters to
The Editor, Sep 22）.　 It is as follows.
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　It is not true that the Liberal Party under Ichiro Ozawa is intent on
blocking any moves to “rescue Japan's weakened financial system.” The
public record shows that before and after departing the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party Mr. Ozawa has continued to advocate changes needed to
reform and rebuild the financial system and the Japanese economy as a
whole.

　Likewise, it is incorrect to state that the agenda of the Liberal
Party in opposing the ruling party's financial reform bill is simply to
force a lower house election.

　The Liberal Party, along with other opposition parties, fundamentally
opposes the sort of cynical politicking suggested by Mr. Clark. To the
knowledge of the Liberal Party, he carried out no interviews with
members of this party in order to compose the article, nor did he attend
any press briefings.
Yoshio Suzuki
Tokyo

【Tokyo has a Foreign Friend Who Is Circulating A False Rumor】

　The following is my comment paper on Professor Clark “Washington has
a Japanese friend who is threatening trouble”.
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　When Marco Polo ventured to the East, he recorded in his diary that
when the people of the West travel to the Far East, they finally reach
the shores of Japan.　 This geographical location has made Japan skilled
at synthesizing elements of other cultures with its own over thousands
of years in order to create its own unique culture.　 Sadly, however, it
has also made Japan at times inept at explaining its culture to the
outside world.

　Because of this, those friends of Japan who live in and understand our
country, and are able to communicate her idiosyncrasies to others, are a
precious resource for us.

　Yet in the same way that Marco Polo wrote of 'rivers flowing of gold'
in Japan, it also at times happens that friends of Japan circulate false
information based on misunderstandings to the world, which does a
disservice to our country.

　The article published in the International Herald Tribune of September
9th by Professor Gregory Clark is one of these examples.　 Professor
Clark understands Japan well, and also has many good friends within the
Japanese community, including myself.　 However by placing his trust in
biased information in a field outside his expertise, and not conducting
his own research, Professor Clark has ended up spreading a false image
of Japanese politics to the world.

　In his column, Professor Clark, whose expertise lies in economics,
offers a comparatively clear account of the difficulties which the
Japanese economy is currently facing.　 His assertion, however, that the
myself, the Liberal Party, and the opposition parties of the Democratic
Party and Peace and Reform Party, are aiming to block the "urgent moves
to rescue Japan's weakened financial system" proposed by the Obuchi
government, and force a dissolution of the lower house, is far wide of
the mark.

　The Liberal Democratic Party government submitted six bills to the
Diet in order to try and resolve the bad loans problem.　 Dissatisfied
with the vagueness of these bills, the three opposition parties tabled
five comprehensive and constructive bills in opposition to the
government's bill establishing a bridge bank.　 We also submitted four
revision bills in place of the five bills for prompt resolution of bad
loans tabled by the Liberal Democratic government.

　If Professor Clark analyzed the nine bills submitted by the three
opposition parties along with the six bills presented by the Liberal
Democratic government, I believe that he would realize his mistake in
asserting that I am aiming simply to block the plan put forward by the
Liberal Democratic Party to rescue Japan's weakened financial system.

　The bill submitted by the three opposition parties is aiming to ensure
that financial institutions provide sufficient disclosure of their
financial circumstances including bad loans, and implement 'prompt
corrective measures'.　 It rejects the government approach, claiming
that some financial institutions are 'too big to fail.'　 Our bill
instead stresses to avoid systemic risks through government control of
failed bank.　 It also includes the need for facilitating the shift of
companies to healthy financial institutions through providing financial
guarantees, It is based on the principles of market discipline, in stark
contrast to the Liberal Democratic government approach of excessive
intervention to the market.

　Many of the measures mentioned above may well be included in a revised
bill after discussions between the government and the opposition
parties.

　The fundamental difference which has remained a sticking point between
us and the government is their attempt to use taxpayers money in order
to rescue big banks which are highly likely to become insolvent.　 The
three opposition parties, on the other hand, have continued to emphasize
the need for the comprehensive disclosure of financial information and
the belief that if a influential financial institution is insolvent, it
should be placed under government control and then liquidated.　 We are
confident that systemic risks can be avoided through government control
and the use of the Bank of Japan as a lender of last resort.　 We
believe that big banks should be dealt with according to the rules of
the market economy.　 It is my strong belief that Japan must reform its
economic system to conform to the free, fair, and open rules of the
market economy.

　In the near future I believe that under the principled and strong
leadership of the three opposition parties, the news that a revised bill
strengthening Japan's financial system has passed the Diet will be
communicated to the world.
　

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