The Lower House passage of the fiscal 2002 government budget on Wednesday represents a sort of victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration. The vote ensures, by virtue of a constitutional provision giving priority to Lower House budget decisions, that the 81-trillion yen package clears the Diet by the end of this month or the beginning of next month when the new financial year starts. That is heartening at a time when the Japanese economy is struggling to get out of its worst slump since the end of World War II.
The Lower House action, however, followed an 11th-hour nonbudget deal between the ruling and opposition parties. The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partners swallowed an opposition demand for sworn testimony by LDP heavyweight Muneo Suzuki, the central figure in an unfolding foreign-aid scandal. Had they rejected the demand, the opposition parties would have taken the budget hostage and delayed the vote. A long delay would have forced the government to compile a stopgap budget.
But the prime minister should have no time to savor his budget victory. The budget itself is not a cure-all for the economic ills that plague the nation, particularly deep deflation and banking unrest. By contrast, the U.S. economy, the world's largest engine for growth, appears to show increasing signs of recovery, half a year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Here in Japan, most economic indicators remain negative, with no immediate signs of a turnaround.