Heizo Takenaka, the former economy minister credited with guiding Japan's longest postwar expansion, on Monday attacked the coalition government for lacking policy direction as it haggles over the next stimulus package.
"The decision-making system in the current government is very messy," Takenaka, who served in Cabinet posts under Junichiro Koizumi from 2001 to 2006, said on the sidelines of a seminar in Seoul. "There's no control tower in the policymaking system."
Officials are saying Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's first economic aid package will be completed Tuesday, after it was blocked last week by a junior coalition party.
The delay threatened to undermine Hatoyama's leadership in reviving the economy, which faces deflation and a yen that reached a 14-year high last month.
Lack of leadership was cited as one reason why Hatoyama's approval rating fell to 59 percent from last month's 63 percent, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey published Monday.
Takenaka said the move by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government to replace the economic advisory panel with a national strategy bureau has made decision-making "messy." He said the smaller coalition members have "very strong bargaining power" and may succeed in increasing the size of the stimulus package.
Hatoyama had been preparing spending of as much as ¥4 trillion, Finance Ministry officials familiar with the matter said last week.