62% Unimpressed by Cabinet Reshuffle and Party Executive Appointments

From the October, 2004 Telephone Poll

December 2004

On September 27, the reshuffled second Koizumi Cabinet inaugurated with the appointment of new party executives in the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, and new ministers. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dubbed his Cabinet “the postal privatization and reform implementation Cabinet,” emphasizing that a cooperative structure to achieve the postal service privatization, which is the backbone of his reform plan, has been successfully formulated.

Prime Minister Koizumi adopted the basic policy of the postal privatization at the Cabinet meeting without approval of the ruling parties. Prior to the Cabinet reshuffle and appointment of the LDP executives, he repeatedly articulated that cooperation in the postal privatization would be a vital condition for lawmakers to be included in his personnel plan. The LDP responded with consecutive requests that skilled and influential politicians should be included to respect the party's factional balance. However, members of factions whose request was not accommodated are deeply frustrated as Mr. Koizumi pursued what is called the “Koizumi Style” personnel plan without laying the groundwork.

Against this backdrop, we conducted a telephone survey in October to examine how the Japanese public appreciate the LDP and Cabinet reshuffles. The survey revealed 31 % of the respondents appreciate the reshuffles, while 62 % do not. When asked what the reshuffled second Koizumi Cabinet should attach top priority to, 32 % named, “economic measures” and 30 % named, “pension reform,” while only 10 % named “postal privatization,” revealing there is an enormous gap in perception between the public and the Prime Minister who give the highest priority to the postal privatization.

The writer reports the public consciousness about the Cabinet reshuffle and the postal service privatization based on the telephone survey conducted in October.

Masahiro KUGAI, NHK Program Department / BCRI Public Opinion Research
The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research