Kamei might Blow Up Hatoyama Administration

Kamei Shizuka, the Minister of Postal Office and Financial Services, told Reuters that he would enact a moratorium of repayment of bank loans. "If the financial world gets scared at the talk of a moratorium, that shows how frail Japan's financial sector is", he said.

But how about the bank's loss? Kamei said that the government should bail out the banks that would be hurt by the moratorium.

The govenment bails out lenders with taxpayer money, so it makes sense that there should be a moratorium for borrowers when they get into trouble. We have to think about the borrowers, not just the lenders.

Well, this is an extreme version of "financial socialism" for which the FRB is attacked in the U.S. Finance Minister Fujii dissented, but Kamei said "Shut up. This is my business." He is right. Since the MoF and the FSA were separated, Fujii can't stop Kamei.

As Tobias Harris admitted, Kamei's appointment is a big mistake of Hatoyama. Although Kamei is the head of a minor party, he is as experienced politician as Ozawa. He has many connections including "black" people and, as a former high official of police, he knows many scandals of politicians. When he threatened PM Abe with a leaked information in a weekly magazine, Abe rebutted that Kamei would be more scandalous if all weekly magazines were right.

Probably it's only Ozawa who can control Kamei. Unlike western politicians, personal connections ("kao") are much more important than parties in Japan.