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 The Current Situation and the Problems of Legislative Assistance Provided to the Diet Members |
| As stated above, concerns as to whether policy making should be moved from the bureaucracy to the Diet have frequently been expressed. According to the Constitution, "the Diet shall be the highest organ of state power, and shall be the sole law-making organ of the State." (Article 41). In terms of carrying out this mandate, what assistance can Diet Members obtain other than that from bureaucrats and private experts? Let's take a look at the actual situation and the problems about which concerns have been expressed. (1)Members' Secretaries For Diet Members, their closest legislative assistants are their secretaries. Each Member is allowed three public secretaries paid with public funds: two secretarial assistants (the first secretary and the second secretary) and another secretarial (policy) assistant, who mainly assists with policy making and legislation activities (Article 132 of the Diet Law). Generally, in addition to these public secretaries, each Member also has some private secretarial assistants, if needed and the Member's budget allows. The position of policy making secretary was implemented in January 1994 and it requires a special qualifying examination. Because of their specialties, these secretaries are expected to act as policy making leaders for Members. This was an epoch move because it created opportunities for members of the general public who wanted to be policy and legislation assistants and to work in law making organizations rather than in administrative organizations. However, there are many complaints today that these positions are not being utilized as initially intended. Noted below are examples of these complaints. Although the secretaries are policy making specialists, each Diet Member under the rules can hire only one. One specialist cannot possibly satisfy all the needs of a Member, so consequently, their jobs tend to be very broad, but without much depth. Today, because each Member requires more specialists and more creative input for policy making, the present rule hinders legislative policy making efforts. There are fundamental differences between the legislative system in Japan and that in the United States. However, the number of policy making secretaries in Japan per Member is far less than that in the United States. Worse, some Diet Members do not use the policy making secretaries for policy-making purposes. When Members' interests turn to their re-election, raising funds, dealing with lobbyists and political activities not connected with policy planning, the policy making secretaries are often used for non-policy making activities. Another complaint about the system is that it allows individuals who fulfill certain requirements, such as experience serving as a secretary to a Member for more than ten years, can become a policy making secretary without taking the qualifying examination. In fact, the majority of the secretaries of today obtained their positions without taking the exam. There would be no problem if the decision to hire such individuals were based on that person's policymaking expertise; however, there are many complaints because the standards are so ambiguous. (2)The Investigative Office for the Committees Both the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors have Standing Committees and Special Committees, which examine drafts and petitions (Article 40 of the Diet Law). The Standing Committees are permanently established, while the Special Committees are established during each Diet session. The Investigation Office for the Committees provides technical support for the committees by investigating and researching matters such as legislative plans, budget plans, settlements, petitions and decisions. Each committee is organized with a chairman, one chief investigator, a second chief investigator, if necessary, and seven to ten investigators. The number of officers in the Investigation Office for the Committees is too few because of their heavy workload. Also, their budget is insufficient; consequently, they cannot purchase such necessities such as literature and historical materials, making it difficult for them to obtain information. In addition, there are many individuals from the Administrative Offices in the Investigation Office for the Committees, making it heavily dependent on and influenced by the Administrative Offices. (3)The National Diet Library Survey and the Legislative Examination Bureau The National Diet Library is an institution attached to the Diet which assists Members in their study and research, in addition to providing library services for public administration, the judiciary, and the nation (Article 130 of the Diet Law, Article 2 of the National Diet Library Law). The National Diet Library Survey and the Legislative Examination Bureau are in charge of research services for the Diet. The Bureau conducts research based upon requests by Diet Members and the Committees. In addition, it also initiates its own research in anticipation of future requests from Members. Analysis and evaluation of issues, research on domestic and foreign legal systems required for deliberations by the national administration and drafting of the outlines of bills are among the services rendered. However, although the Bureau has a considerable workload, it does not have sufficient staff, similar to the situation in the Investigation Office for the Committees. In addition, there are many staff members from the Administrative Offices, a situation which strongly influences the work of the Bureau. (4)The Legislative Bureaus A Legislative Bureau is established in each House to assist Diet Members in drafting bills (Article 131 of the Diet Law and the Law of Legislative Bureau). Each Legislative Bureau, which consists of a chief officer and about seventy officers, including fifty legal specialists, is as large as the Administrative Bureau. Its main job is to formulate and investigate legislative plans and see them to through enactment. Unlike the Administrative Bureau, the Legislative Bureau participates in the process of making laws, by doing background research on legislation and investigating policy rationale. However, the Bureau also does not have sufficient staff. (5)Policy Making Organizations within Political Parties and Parliamentary Groups Each member can use his party's and parliamentary group's policy making organizations such as the Policy Board and the Policy Research Council in addition to the publicly provided institutions. Within each party's institution, there are policy staffs to assist Members. The Liberal Democratic Party, which especially has had long experience as the party in power, provides strong authority for policy planning through its Policy Research Council. For example, it is so powerful that it virtually determines the substance of legislation prior to introduction on the floor, acting as a preliminary legislative council. The Council is the most important legislative base. However, compared to the number of Diet Members, there are an insufficient number of policy planning officers. Worse, these officers are often overburdened by other work such as preparing conferences, scheduling meetings with bureaucrats or external organizations or working with groups, industries and experts. Also each officer is in charge of numerous subject areas, making it almost impossible to specialize in a particular field. In this situation, the institution will have a negative effect caused by the vertically arranged administration and will not be able to meet the needs of the Members. Sizes of Staff Who Assist Members of Diet
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