Every politician scrambles for a piece of the budget pie to appease local voters, but few seem to care about how effectively the money is actually spent.
Such has been the tradition of Diet deliberations regarding the budget, with lawmakers treating the audit committees of the two chambers more lightly than the budget committees.
But faced with increasing public anger over the wasteful use of taxpayers' money, the Diet on Monday took a step toward correcting the situation by having the entire Cabinet attend a session of the House of Councilors Audit Committee -- a postwar first.