No. 7: Democracy is not the same as the agreement based on discussions (September 11, 2011)

One of the ministers of the present government quit because of his careless statements. He seemed to have been overjoyed by his promotion to a minister. He talked to the accompanying newspeople in a friendly manner during his on-site review of the devastated Tohoku region, not knowing how influential his statements were to the Japanese society. What is important here is not his departure from the government staff. What matters most is that the formation of the present cabinet was totally based on the deliberation to allocate the ministerial positions equally to political cliques. That is, it can safely be said that the agreement based on the discussions between political cliques formed the current cabinet. An underlying concept is vital to make the agreement based on discussions workable as democracy. In this case, it is what is the best cabinet to tide over the current turbulent economic and political situations. Without an underlying concept, an agreement is just an agreement.