The government and the Democratic Party of Japan on Dec. 23 decided to resume work to construct the Yanba Dam in Gunma Prefecture and to include a necessary fund in the fiscal 2012 budget after a two-year freeze. By this decision, the DPJ has broken one of the main promises in its manifesto for the August 2009 Lower House election.
The manifesto had picked the ¥460 billion Yanba Dam project as a symbol of a wasteful public-works project and the party had used the slogan "from concrete to humans" to express the idea of switching the flow of public money from large-scale public works projects pushed by vested interests to measures to directly improve people's quality of life.
People in the area where the dam is located and local government officials in areas supposed to receive benefits from the dam construction in the form of flood control and securing of water resources will welcome the decision this time. But the decision will cost the DPJ a lot. Voters who supported the party thinking that the manifesto contained a needed change will regard the DPJ as a party that does not care about ideals.