Liberal Japan

According to a recent article in the Japan Times:

The Tochigi Prefectural Government received a court order Thursday to pay 47 million yen in damages to two families for giving a gun permit to a man who shot their relatives, one fatally. Presiding Judge Setsuo Fukushima of the Utsunomiya District Court said giving the gun license to the man was illegal because the shooting had been “predictable,” especially by police officers who had intervened in disputes between the two female victims and the man, who were neighbors.

I’m sure I could find many examples of this in other countries as well, in particular, America. But I’m not entirely sure I see the reasoning behind suing the government here.

Basically, the 47 million will be paid by tax payers, right? It’s perfectly acceptable to tax people as the government needs money. It’s also perfectly acceptable for the government to use coercion in order to make sure people pay their taxes.

However, should it be the case that when the government makes mistakes taxes should be increased to pay financial compensation? Some people may not like to hear this, but this amounts to the government using coercion to make tax payers cough up money to pay for the government’s errors. Is this a good idea?

Maybe. I do feel genuinely sorry for the victims in this case. I can imagine some arguments that the victims deserve the compensation and as there’s no one else to hold responsible, the government has to pay. Indeed, perhaps that is so. I’m not really sure. A case like this certainly seems worthy of closer investigation. I’d guess both in Japan and elsewhere this is a common practice now?

But what I’d like to know is who will be held accountable next time the people go to vote for their local officials? Will this be a campaign issue? My guess is it won’t be, and there’s the real problem. The more compensation is paid for issues like this, the less motivation there is to fix the problem through the electorate.

Therefore I think the practice needs to be viewed in that vein and with caution.