The budget committees of both Houses of the Diet met April 24 and 25 to hear Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's views on various matters facing his new Cabinet. Throughout both days, he answered questions from the opposition parties. As a result, he seems to have cleared his first hurdle as the head of government.
Initially, there were doubts about Mori's ability to serve as prime minister, and the opposition group criticized his policy speech as vague. But last week it was the opposition parties that failed to ask any substantive questions. Mori must be feeling relieved.
The opposition parties should first have asked whether Japan should maintain its current nine-year compulsory-education system, i.e., six years of elementary school and three years of junior high school. Before the war, only the six elementary years were compulsory. Yet the prewar system succeeded in producing outstanding citizens.