Monthly journal “Voice” September Issue

Aug 10

, 2009

“My Political Philosophy”

Yukio Hatoyama

The Banner of Party Politician Ichiro Hatoyama

Among Japanese people today, "

" is a particularly popular word which is usuallytranslated as ‘love’. Therefore, when I speak of "

yuai

", which is written with the charactersfor ‘friendship’ and ‘love’, many people seem to picture a concept that is soft and weak.However, when I speak of

yuai

, I am referring to a concept that is actually rather different.What I am referring to is fraternity, as in

liberté

égalité

fraternité

, the slogan of the FrenchRevolution. When my grandfather Ichiro Hatoyama translated one of the works of CountRichard Coudenhove-Kalergi into Japanese, he rendered the word fraternity as "

yuai

"rather than the existing translation of "

hakuai

". Therefore, when I refer to

yuai

, I am notreferring to something tender but rather to a strong, combative concept that was a banner of revolution. 85 years ago, in 1923, Count Coudenhove-Kalergi published his work

Pan-Europa

, starting off the Pan-Europa Movement which eventually led to the formation of theEuropean Union. Count Coudenhove-Kalergi was the son of an Austrian noble, who wasposted to Japan as his country's minister, and Mitsuko Aoyama, the daughter of anantiques dealer from Azabu, Tokyo. One of the count’s middle names was the Japanesename Eijiro.In 1935, Count Coudenhove-Kalergi published

The Totalitarian State against Man

. Thework includes severe criticisms of Soviet communism and Nazism as well as the reflectionson the self-indulgence of capitalism in leaving such ideologies to flourish. Coudenhove-Kalergi believed that freedom forms the foundation of human dignity and that it is thereforeunsurpassed in value. In order to guarantee freedom, he advocated a system of privateownership. However, he was despondent at how the severe social inequalities produced bycapitalism had helped give rise to communism by creating an environment in which peopleaspired to equality, and also at how this had resulted in the emergence of nationalsocialism as an alternative to both capitalism and communism. "

Freedom without fraternity leads to anarchy. Equality without fraternity leads to tyranny

"(Translation of the quote inJapanese). Coudenhove-Kalergi discussed how both totalitarianism, which tried to achieveequality at all costs, and capitalism, which had fallen into self-indulgence, resulted indisregard for human dignity and as such resulted in the treatment of human beings as ameans instead of an end. Although freedom and a quality are important for human beings,if they are followed to fundamentalist extremes, they can both result in immeasurablehorrors. Therefore, Coudenhove-Kalergi recognized the necessity of a concept that couldachieve a balance and maintain respect for humanity. That is what he sought in the idea of fraternity."Man is an end and not a means. The state is a means and not an end". These are the firstlines of

The Totalitarian State against Man

. At the time Coudenhove-Kalergi was puttingideas together for this publication, two different forms of totalitarianism were prominent inEurope, and his home country of Austria was being threatened with annexation by Hitler'sGermany. Coudenhove-Kalergi traveled all around Europe advocating the cause of Pan-Europeanism and criticizing Hitler and Stalin. However, his efforts were in vain. Austria fellto the Nazis and Coudenhove-Kalergi was forced to flee in disappointed exile to the UnitedStates. The movie

Casablanca

is said to be based on his flight. When Coudenhove-Kalergitalks of a "fraternal revolution", he is referring to the combative philosophy that supportedthe fierce fight against both the left-wing and right-wing totalitarianism of that age. After thewar, Ichiro Hatoyama, who was exiled from public office just as he was on the point of becoming Prime Minister, read the works of Count Coudenhove-Kalergi as he was living hisenforced life of leisure. He was so struck by

The Totalitarian State against Man

that he took

it upon himself to translate it into Japanese. His translation was published under the title

Jiyu to Jinsei

(Freedom and Life).For Ichiro, who was an ardent critic of both communism and military led plannedeconomies,

The Totalitarian State against Man

seemed to provide the most appropriatetheoretical system for fighting back against the popularity of Marxism that began to swell inpost-war Japan (the Socialist party, Communist party and labor movements) and for building a healthy parliamentary democracy. While fighting against the growing influence of the socialist and communist parties, Ichiro Hatoyama used word

yuai

(fraternity) as abanner in trying to bring down the bureaucrat-led government of Shigeru Yoshida andreplace it with his own administration of party politicians. This was expressed succinctly byHatoyama in the

Yuai Seinen Doshikai Kouryo

(Young People’s Fraternal AssociationMission Statement), which Ichiro Hatoyama wrote in 1953. "Under the banner of liberalism,we will devote ourselves to a Fraternal Revolution, avoid extreme left wing and right wingideologies, and work steadfastly to achieve a healthy and vibrant democratic society andbuild a free and independent cultural nation."Ichiro Hatoyama's concept of fraternity continued to have influence as an undercurrentwithin Japan's post-war conservative political parties. Following the revision of the Japan-US security treaty in 1960, the Liberal Democratic Party changed direction significantly andbegan to prioritize policies of management-labor conciliation. These policies formed thefoundation for Japan's period of rapid economic growth and are best symbolized by theLDP Basic Charter, a 1965 document which was written to serve as a kind of missionstatement. The first chapter of this charter, which is entitled "Human Dignity", states, "human lives are precious, and are an end in and of themselves. The lives of human beingsmust never become a means". A similar phrase can be found in the LDP Labor Charter, adocument which called for reconciliation with the labor movement. These phrases areclearly borrowed from the work of Coudenhove-Kalergi, and were very likely influenced byIchiro Hatoyama's thinking on the subject of fraternity. These two charters contributed to theestablishment of the Hatoyama and Ishibashi cabinets, and were both drafted by HirohideIshida, a politician who served as Labor minister in the Ikeda Cabinet and was responsiblefor setting Japan on a course towards conciliatory labor-management policies.

The End of LDP One-Party Rule and the Announcement of the Democratic Party of Japan

In the Post-War Period, the LDP confronted socialist forces inside and outside Japan anddedicated itself to Japan's reconstruction and the achievement of high economic growth.These were noteworthy achievements which deserve their place in history. However, evenafter the end of the Cold War, the LDP fell into the trap of "the politics of inertia", andcontinued to act as if economic growth in itself was Japan's national goal. The partycontinually failed to adapt to the changing contemporary environment and shift towardspolicies designed to qualitatively improve people's lives. At the same time, unhealthy tiesbetween politicians, bureaucrats and corporations continually led to political corruption, along-standing illness of the LDP. When the Cold War came to an end, I strongly felt that thehistorical role the LDP had played in supporting Japan's rapid economic growth had cometo an end, and that the time had come for a new seat of political responsibility.Therefore, I left the LDP, which had been founded by my grandfather, and after participatingin the establishment of the New Party Sakigake, I eventually became the founding leader of the Democratic Party of Japan. The (former) DPJ was founded on September 11, 1996.The following phrases were included in the statement released to mark the founding of theparty. "From today onwards, we wish to place the spirit of fraternity at the heart of our society. Freedom can often result in an unrestrained environment where the strong prey

upon the weak. Equality can easily result in a malevolent form of equality where alldifferences are criticized. Fraternity is the power that can prevent such extremes of freedom and equality yet over the past 100 or so years the power of fraternity has beenmarginalized. Modern nations up until the 20th century rushed to mobilized their people andin doing so tended to assess their worth as a single mass [rather than as individuals]. ……We believe that each individual human being has a boundless, diverse individuality andthat each human life is irreplaceable. That is why we believe in the principle of ‘self independence’ through which each individual has the right to decide upon their own destinyand the obligation to take responsibility for the results of their choices. At the same time, wealso stress the importance of the principle of ‘coexistence with others’ under which peoplerespect each other's mutual independence and differences while also working tounderstand each other and seek common ground for cooperative action. We believe thatwe must steadfastly adhere to these principles of independence and coexistence not onlyin the context of personal relationships within Japanese society but also in the context of the relationships between Japan and other nations and the relationship betweenhumankind and the environment."Author Saneatsu Mushanokoji wrote the famous words "I am me, you are you, yet we aregood friends". I think these words truly express the spirit of fraternity. Just as the ideals of freedom and equality evolve with the contemporary environment, in terms of both their expression and their content, the idea of ‘fraternity’, which calls on us to respect individuals,also evolves with the times. When I saw the collapse of the totalitarian regimes that bothCoudenhove-Kalergi and my grandfather Ichiro Hatoyama had opposed, I redefined myunderstanding of fraternity as ‘the principle of independence and coexistence’".13 years have now passed since we formed of the former Democratic Party of Japan.During the time since then, post-cold war Japan has been continually buffeted by the windsof market fundamentalism in a US-led movement which is more usually called globalization.Freedom is supposed to be the highest of all values but in the fundamentalist pursuit of capitalism, which can be described as ‘freedom formalized in economic terms’, has resultedin people being treated not as an end but as a means. Consequently human dignity hasbeen lost. The recent financial crisis and its aftermath have once again forced us to takenote of this reality. How can we put an end to unrestrained market fundamentalism andfinancial capitalism that are void of morals or moderation in order to protect the financesand livelihoods of our citizens? That is the issue we are now facing. In these times, Irealized that we must once again remember the role for fraternity identified byCoudenhove-Kalergi as a force for the moderating the danger inherent within freedom. Icame to a decision that we must once again raise the banner of fraternity. On May 16,2009, in the run-up to the DPJ leadership election, I made the following statement: "I willtake the lead in coming together with our friends and colleagues to overcome this difficultsituation and ensure that we achieve a change of government in order to bring about afraternal society based on coexistence." What does fraternity mean to me? It is thecompass that determines our political direction, a yardstick for deciding our policies. Ibelieve it is also the spirit that supports our attempts to achieve ‘an era of independenceand coexistence’.

Restoring the Weakened Sphere of Public Service

In our present times, fraternity can be described as a principle that aims to adjust to theexcesses of the current globalized brand of capitalism and make adjustments toaccommodate the local economic practices that have been fostered through our traditions.In other words, it is a means of building an economic society based on coexistence byswitching away from the policies of market fundamentalism and towards policies thatprotect the livelihoods and safety of the people.