150 Diet members going abroad on 'study tours' this summer

Tuesday 22nd July, 08:26 AM JST

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tkoind2 at 09:29 AM JST - 22nd July

It would be nice to see the government held accountable to the people. I blame corruption and excess for many of the policies that neglect the needs of the people in Japan. But I also blame ordinary Japanese people for behaving like shy and helpless sheep when it comes to politics. The goverment says "Sorry we lost your records so you have to prove that you paid for pension." And people just so "Ok". Then they say, "Hey handicapped people, we're cutting off your transportation benefits." People say "Shoganai" and kill themselves instead of doing something useful.

Japanese people need to reach down and stop putting so much gambarro! energy into the their 15hr work lives and put a lot more gambarro energy into making things better.

I wish people would strike to make companies have more rational hours. Women should strike to demand equal pay. All of us should protest corruption and issues in health care, education, retirement and pension programs and treatment of the weaker members of society.

We pay the taxes, we do the work and we spend the money that keep the economy going. We have the power if we are willing to inconvenience ourselves a little we can make things better.

If we follow like sheep, then we deserve the slaughter that corrupt leaders lead us to. So if you want change, get off your behind and make yourselves heard. Let these guys know that you are not ok paying for them to chill out in Italy while your handicapped grandmother cannot afford to eat and can't pay for her transport to the understaffed hospital.
asdfghjkl at 09:41 AM JST - 22nd July

They travel to these places and spend less than 30 minutes in a meeting to justify the trip and then come back to Japan after the nice vacation to make up some new regulation based on these trips with absolutely nothing substantial to back it up except for the fact that it seemed nice while I was on vacation.....hello! anything is nice on a free vacation using taxpayers money. Hope these people don't come back. Waste of space.
DeepAir65 at 09:59 AM JST - 22nd July

Is there a word in the the Japanese language for junket?

I would not say that this is by any way unique to Japan but with all the other stories of fraud and bribery you have to wonder. Do they have to publish papers as a result of the trip?
cleo at 10:10 AM JST - 22nd July

The Japanese equivalent of 'junket' is 大名旅行(daimyo ryoko), literally 'a feudal lord's trip' or 遊山(yusan), literally 'playing in the mountains'.

This kind of thing has long been seen as one of the perks of the job. High time these pholk showed that they're doing their job first before they hoik off to play in the mountains.

Lost pensions, health cutbacks, higher taxes and health care costs.....nope, they have not earned these junkets.
bamboohat at 10:27 AM JST - 22nd July

I wanna be a politician
gogogo at 10:47 AM JST - 22nd July

What a waste of money, if these "leaders" are so in the dark about other countries and can't come up with their own ideas what are they doing in power. It's obviously a ten minute inspection of whatever and 7 days of checking the local beach out.

I say make them all write detailed reports, photos, diaries of what they did etc.
tkoind2 at 11:31 AM JST - 22nd July

If they want to travel, they should earn service points from society. These would be fixed and assigned to tasks. For example. Volunteer work at and elder center: 10pts. Passing a bill that will help resolve the lost pension problem. 1000pts. And so on.

A trip to do research in Italy for a week would be say 3000pts. Call it a merit award.

Now. To make it fair. The legislator who fails to offer any practical bills will be penalized 1000pts. Failure to do any public service would be -10pts per hour failed to serve. Failure to pay pension and national health premiums -10,000pts per year unpaid. So bad guys will never travel on the public yen.
Alphaape at 12:00 PM JST - 22nd July

We have the same in America. Obama's latest trip to the mid East and Europe is offically called a "congressional fact finding tour." He should have invited Sen McCain since he does have a republican senator on his trip. So while in Iraq, he is flown on military aircraft and provided security by the military.

Trips to Europe will also be paid at taxpayers cost. So much for him raising $52 million last week, since the majority of the costs for him will not come out of this.

Is there an equivalent like the General Accounting Office (GAO) in Japan govt that is supposedly non-partisan and provides oversight over government spending? The GAO has brought down some of the notorius big spenders in the US govt in the past and wonder if such a system exists in Japanese govt.
nigelboy at 12:10 PM JST - 22nd July

Is there an equivalent like the General Accounting Office (GAO) in Japan govt that is supposedly non-partisan and provides oversight over government spending?

Board of Audit of Japan

http://www.jbaudit.go.jp/engl/engl2/contents/frame03.htm

Can't say that it has been effective. But then again, which nation has been effective?
Taka313 at 12:21 PM JST - 22nd July

If any of the Diet members are visiting an area near you, plan on longer lines at the golf course. Guaranteed.

Taka
some14some at 06:29 PM JST - 22nd July

"Bon Voyage", study hard and have a great time, all of them are democratically elected respectable members and country's future lies in their capable hands.
medievaltimes at 06:47 PM JST - 22nd July

I blame corruption and excess for many of the policies that neglect the needs of the people in Japan. But I also blame ordinary Japanese people for behaving like shy and helpless sheep when it comes to politics.

This is 100 percent correct tkoind2.
KissMint at 12:41 PM JST - 23rd July

But I also blame ordinary Japanese people for behaving like shy and helpless sheep when it comes to politics.

I agree that this is how they act, but can we really expect them to behave any differently? To be interdependent, non-critical thinking followers is part of every aspect of upbringing in Japan. They don't know anything else.
LIBERTAS at 08:51 PM JST - 23rd July

BAAAAaaaaah! BAAAaaaaah!
lipscombe at 03:25 AM JST - 27th July

as said above "baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH" lets hope they have a trouble and crash free vacation overseas. we taxpayers should start saving already in case they want to go back for Xmas. its ok, they might bring us Omiyage, hands up who likes choco macademaia nuts!