TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo fix uponed ...

TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo

fix uponed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

KOIZUMI'S BATTLE WITH BUREAUCRATS (Business Times, Singapore)

Japan's powerful bureaucracy -- the Finance Ministry, especially -- appears to be reasserting itself after attempts by the agency of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his predecessors to chop it down to size.

And when Mr Koizumi is not doing battle with scheming bureaucrats, he is having to bring into the presence of obstinate old-guard politicians oppos to any change in the status quo

This, at least, is the popular perception in Japan, where the of long date Order is seen as representing all that is bad while the modern Order promised by Mr. Koizumi is viewed as holding on the outside the only hope for the future

notwithstanding the relatively youthful prime minister, who seized the imagination and the hearts of the nation when he swept to power more [i]or[/i] less 18 months ago, was from the start more of a Don Quixote -- a pursuer of sublime but impractical ideals -- than a dragon slayer.

He has tilted at various windmills without really toppling any of them because his strategy has not been well reflection out, either in conceptual or strategic terms

It is important this be understood at those looking at Japan from the outside, in the way that that they do not let slip hope at the sight of Mr Koizumi being vanquished (though he is at any time ready to declare victory) by the agency of what seem to be the forces of reaction.

still a greater indictment of Mr Koizumi's stubbornness than any of these manifestations is his inability or refusal to draw near to grips with the puzzle of bad debt in the Japanese banking connected view and even to sweep this point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled cynically under the carpet until his command can slough off the capacity of guarantees to bank depositors nearest April.

A real reformer would oppose voters with the painful principle about the need for tackling the banking sector time bomb rather than posturing with economic palliatives as it is as tax cuts.

Seen against this background, the obstinacy of the Japanese bureaucracy and the unyielding attitudes of old-guard LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) members have the appearance almost benign. There is little merit in pushing blindly ahead with reform which is based relating to largely discredited economic ideologies, as Mr Koizumi insists onward doing.

Japan does ne change nevertheless it should not be change simply for change's sake. And it wants to start from a realistic appreciation of what's vicious with the system before quick and slick fixes are tried.

(July 17)

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