On July 24, lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Party approved an agreement for the two opposition parties to merge before the end of September. Some pundits criticized the scheduled merger as "unprincipled," but I disagree. I believe it has major significance for the nation.
In my opinion, it is essential for Japan to implement market principle-based reforms to change its highly regulated, opaque and unfair economy into a free, transparent and fair one, but that is not sufficient. These reforms must be accompanied by simultaneous "third way" reform.
Market principle-based reforms, pure and simple, will improve economic efficiency, but they are also likely to widen income gaps, lower the quality of public medical care and education, increase the unemployment rate, arouse public anxieties, contribute to higher crime and suicide rates and, for many people, make society less livable.