Structural Reform of Knowledge through Structural Reform of the Economy | Tomoyuki Kojima (Dean, Faculty of Policy Management)
2006.09.21
Professor Heizo Takenaka, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, has decided to resign from his seat in the House of Councillors to coincide with Prime Minister Koizumi's resignation at the end of his term as president of the Liberal Democratic Party. His resignation midway through his six-year term has drawn harsh criticism, despite his being the top-elected candidate on the LDP's proportional representation list with 720,000 votes. Resigning from office mid-term is an act that betrays the public's trust, and he surely has a responsibility to respond and explain with sincerity.
However, his statement that "my role in the world of politics ended with the end of the Koizumi Cabinet" is understandable to a certain extent. For five years since the inauguration of the Koizumi Cabinet, Minister Takenaka has played a central role in the policy implementation of the Koizumi structural reforms. Since his time at the Faculty of Policy Management, he has always spoken of the need for "policy watchers" in Japan who can move back and forth between public policy research and practice, and he has embodied this himself.
Policy management is an accumulation of "practical wisdom" that aims to reorganize knowledge through the repeated policy cycle of discovering policy issues, confirming their importance, creating and implementing policy options, and evaluating the results of implementation. Policy management was first advocated in Japan at SFC, and it was an attempt to compel a structural reform of conventional academic research. This structural reform of knowledge is what Professor Takenaka undertook through the practice of the structural reform of the Japanese economy.
Undoubtedly, this movement back and forth between policy research and practice, although there may be disagreements about the goals, content, or style of the policies, is an ideal model for those who aspire to study policy management. Professor Takenaka should have no regrets about his five years of policy practice, and after summarizing these five years of practice, he is expected to continue moving back and forth between research and practice as a "policy watcher." That is likely why he states, "I intend to do whatever I can to contribute as a private citizen and an expert in economics." Thank you for your five years of dedicated practice. Professor Takenaka is still a Guest Professor at the Faculty of Policy Management.
(Posted on: 2006/09/21)