In June 2001, the first government-sponsored town meeting under the initiative of then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was held to promote direct dialogue between the people and Cabinet ministers. So far, there have been 174 such meetings. But a report by a Cabinet Office investigation panel shows that most were a sham to manipulate public opinion in favor of government policies.
In 105 of such meetings, people were planted to ask questions or make statements. In 15 meetings, bureaucrats pre-arranged questions asked by participants. It is especially outrageous that questions were staged at town meetings dealing with major topics such as legal and education reform -- in five of eight town meetings on education reform and in six of seven on legal reform.
A gratuity of 5,000 yen was even given to 65 people picked to asked questions at 25 town meetings. (They do not include those who asked staged questions.) The report also says that at 71 town meetings, or about 40 percent of the total, the central government asked local governments to mobilize as many people as possible to attend them.