Japan: Politics
Outline
• Political institutions– parliamentary system of government– National Diet– Prime Minister and Cabinet– bureaucracy– Judiciary
• Parties and elections
National Diet
• House of Councillors (Upper House)
• House of Representatives (Lower House)– choose prime minister– pass budget– ratify treaties
Prime Minister & Cabinet
• All are members of the Japanese National Diet
• Most are members of the House of Representatives
Prime Minister
• Shinzo Abe (born in 1954)
• Prime Minister since December 2012
• Liberal Democratic Party
• family’s political and economic power– father was Foreign Minister 1982-1986
• won father’s seat in the House
of Representatives in 1993
LDP
• All Prime Ministers of Japan
• from 1954 to 1993
• from 1996 to 2009
• were from LDP
The Bureaucracy
• Heavy involvement in policymaking:– draft legislation (short and vague laws)– implementing or enforcing legislation
• Recruit the best of college graduates
• ``Prime Ministers come and go, but we are forever”
- A Japanese bureaucrat
Local government
• Unitary rather than federal system:– local authority delegated by central governmt.– 47 prefectures
• governors and legislatures
– hundreds of municipalities• mayors and city councils
• 2/3 of all government spending
• 1/3 of all tax revenues
Party Systems before '92
• Combination of multiparty system with sustained dominance of 1 majority party
• Chaotic political party system 1946-55– 2 conservative parties, 2 socialist parties,
communist party, plus micro-parties
• Party merges in 1955
• “One-and-a-Half Party System”
Party System 1955 - 1992
Major Political Parties
• Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)– conservative catch-all party
• Japan Socialist Party (JSP)– “Japan Peace Party”
• Japan Communist Party (JCP)– anti-emperor, anti-capitalism, anti-military– only party untainted by money politics
National Vote Share
Pre-1994 Electoral Rules
Industrial contributions
The Iron Triangle
bureaucrats
LDP politiciansbig businessexecutives
Political Earthquake of '93-'95
• Economic stagnation since late 1980s
• Major corruption scandals of LDP leaders– 2.5 billion yen contribution from a company– 1 billion yen income tax evasion
• LDP Diet members split and some left to form new parties
• LDP coalition cabinets since 1996
New Electoral Rules (1996)
• 480 members in House of Representatives– 300 elected from single-member districts– 180 elected from 11 proportional
representation districts
• 252 members in House of Councillors– 100 elected from proportional representation
district– 152 elected from 47 prefecture constituencies
Party Realignment (‘90s)
Public support for parties
Japan’s International Role
• Yoshida Doctrine (pre-1980s)– political-economic cooperation with U.S.– small national defense expenditure– security guaranteed by U.S. (military bases)
• Low-profile foreign policy
• Trade policy
• Economic superpower (1980s)
