After nearly two years in office, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is increasingly beleaguered in his bid to retool Japan's dysfunctional economic systems. He is sticking to his banner slogans -- "Structural reform without sanctuaries" and "No reform, no growth," but the gap between words and deeds continues to widen. That is one way to look at the policy speech he delivered in the Diet on Friday.
No doubt his main job is to halt falling prices and get the economy moving again. Disappointingly, he showed no inspirational blueprint for accomplishing that. Instead, he spent much of the time reiterating the policies he had announced previously. What is more, the speech was devoid of the zeal for reform that he had so eloquently expressed in his maiden policy speech in May 2001. The biggest challenge for him now is to reduce the distance between rhetoric and reality.
In Friday's address, Mr. Koizumi stressed the need to rebuild Japan through bold reforms, saying it is vital to revive economic growth, reduce the budget gap, create a smaller government and advance technological progress. He singled out deflation as the worst economic malaise Japan has suffered since the end of World War II, noting that the continuing slide in prices is having a "severe impact" on economic activities and people's lives. To achieve economic revival, he said "all available policy measures" will be taken to accelerate reforms in four key areas -- spending, taxation, finance and deregulation. To fight deflation, he added, the government will work in tandem with the Bank of Japan.