Originally published on July 10, 2019.
Through an exclusive interview with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga published in the August issue of Hanada, this passage presents concrete results achieved under the Abe administration’s political leadership, including agricultural reform, expansion of agricultural exports, improvement in employment, and the opening of the State Guest Houses to the public.
It shows how the administration clearly defined what had to be done and then moved the bureaucracy to carry it out step by step, illustrating this with real examples from regional revitalization and tourism promotion.
It is an especially clear and suggestive account of what political leadership means in practice.

2019-07-10
We have also placed emphasis on the export of agricultural products, which stood at about 450 billion yen annually before this administration took office, and last year doubled to 9.068 billion yen, with a goal of surpassing the 1 trillion yen mark during 2019.
The following is an article by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga published in the August issue of the monthly magazine Hanada under the title, Exclusive Interview: Japan Cannot Be Entrusted to Opposition Cooperation.
Not only all the people of Japan, but people throughout the world as well, must read it.
Opening the State Guest Houses to the Public as Well
One area in which we have been working with clear goals is agricultural reform.
In his policy speech, the Prime Minister declared that “an aggressive agricultural policy is necessary,” and we carried out the first fundamental reform of the agricultural cooperatives in sixty years.
At the same time, we have also placed emphasis on the export of agricultural products, which stood at about 450 billion yen annually before this administration took office, and last year doubled to 9.068 billion yen, with a goal of surpassing the 1 trillion yen mark during 2019.
The Abe administration has pursued tourism policy and agricultural policy with the clear objective of raising local incomes and expanding local consumption.
Precisely because the results of those efforts have begun to become visible before the people, I believe we have received the support of the people and the administration has remained stable.
As a result of clearly setting forth what needed to be done and working toward economic revitalization in that direction, the effective job-offers-to-applicants ratio improved from 0.83 before this administration took office to 1.63, the highest level in forty-five years.
It was the first time since statistics began to be compiled that the job-offers ratio exceeded 1 in all forty-seven prefectures, and we were able to create an environment in which people who wanted to work could work.
I believe the employment environment has improved this much precisely because economic policy has been properly carried out.
It is the result of having promoted Abenomics across the government under political leadership.
When politics clearly indicates a direction and proceeds with determination, the bureaucracy will make further efforts in that direction.
Take, for example, the opening of the Akasaka and Kyoto State Guest Houses to the general public.
I myself had long wondered why something of such value was not being opened to the people, but for many years there was various resistance within the bureaucracy, including at the operational level, and it could not be realized.
However, under strong political judgment, we overcame the issues one by one, and at present each of the State Guest Houses is open for about 250 days a year, receiving more than 500,000 visitors annually in Akasaka and more than 100,000 in Kyoto.
In addition, at Shinjuku Gyoen the opening hours, which had previously been only until 4:30 p.m., were extended to 6:00 p.m. and to 7:00 p.m. in summer.
National art museums and museums across the country were also made to stay open until 8:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
There were many things everywhere that anyone could see were strange, and many ordinary things that had not been done, but now, one by one, they have been improved through political leadership, and we have become able to provide many foreign visitors to Japan with opportunities to experience the attractions of Japan.
To be continued.