The Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto for the 2009 Lower House election envisaged establishing a National Strategy Bureau directly under the prime minister. The bureau would gather talented people from both the private and public sectors to work out a national vision and decide on the framework of the government budget.
It and the Government Revitalization Unit to detect and eliminate government waste were to serve as the "two wheels" of a political setup in which elected lawmakers take the initiative in developing policy measures.
But Prime Minister Naoto Kan's July 15 decision could wreck this vision. He has given up on the plan to upgrade the current National Strategy Office to a legally backed "Bureau" and decided to downgrade the functions of the office. It will be deprived of the power to coordinate different government ministries and agencies; instead, it will focus on making proposals and providing information on domestic matters and diplomacy to the prime minister.