Politics of Japan

Japan has a parliamentary government, which consists of three branches: the administration (executive) branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch. Sovereignty is vested in Japanese nationals by whom officials are elected in all of the branches. There is universal adult suffrage with a fair, reliable, secret ballot. For historical reasons, the system is similar to that in the United Kingdom. There is dispute as to whether Japan is a constitutional monarchy or a republic.

Government

Main article: Government of Japan

Japan officially has the traditional federal system, and its 47 prefectures depend on the central government for most funding. Governors of prefectures, mayors of municipalities, and prefectural and municipal assembly members are popularly elected for four-year terms.

Sovereignty

Traditionally, Japan was founded in 660 BC by Emperor Jimmu. The Meiji Constitution, which established the modern Japanese state, was ratified in 1889. Japan was occupied by the Allies from the end of World War II in 1945 until 1952. Sovereignty, which was previously embodied in the Emperor, is now the domain of the people. The Emperor is defined as the symbol of the state.

Legislative

By the Constitution, the Diet is the most powerful of the three branches and consists of two houses, the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. The Diet directs the Emperor in the appointment and removal of the chiefs of the executive and judicial branches.

At present, the following political parties are represented in the National Diet, along with Non-partisans.

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, conservative)
Democratic Party (DPJ, liberal/social-democratic)
- the Independent's Club sits with the Democrat Party.
New Clean Government Party (New Kōmeitō, theocratic Buddhist/conservative)
Japanese Communist Party (JCP, communist)
Social Democrat Party (SDP, social-democratic)
Liberal League (LL, conservative)

Note: The New Conservative Party (Hoshu Shintō) merged with the Liberal Democrat Party of Japan on November 10, 2003, after its failure to win more than 4 seats in the election that year.

The LDP has been the dominant party for most of the post-war period since 1955, and is composed of a several factions which are oriented along personalistic rather than ideological lines.

Executive

The executive branch reports to the Diet. The chief of the executive branch, the Prime Minister, is appointed by the Emperor as directed by the Diet. He must be a member of either house of the Diet and a civilian. The Cabinet, which he organizes, must also be civilian. The Constitution states that the majority of the Cabinet must be elected members of either house of the Diet, the precise wording leaving an opportunity to appoint non-elected officials too. The Prime Minister has the power to appoint and remove ministers.

In cases when the Liberal Democrat Party (the LDP) has been in power, it has been convention that the President of the LDP serves as prime minister.

Judicial

The judicial branch is independent of the other two. Its judges are appointed by the Emperor as directed by the Diet.

Japan's judicial system, drawn from customary law, civil law, and Anglo-American common law, consists of several levels of courts, with the Supreme Court as the final judicial authority. The Japanese constitution, drawn up on May 3, 1947 includes a bill of rights similar to the United States Bill of Rights, and the Supreme Court has the right of judicial review. Japanese courts do not use a jury system, and there are no administrative courts or claims courts. Because of the judicial system's basis, court decisions are made in accordance with legal statutes. Only Supreme Court decisions have any direct effect on later interpretation of the law.

Policy making

Despite an increasingly unpredictable domestic and international environment, policy making conforms to wellestablished postwar patterns. The close collaboration of the ruling party, the elite bureaucracy, and important interest groups often make it difficult to tell who exactly is responsible for specific policy decisions. The tendency for insiders to guard information on such matters compounds the difficulty, especially for foreigners wishing to understand how domestic decision making can be influenced to reduce trade problems.

Human factor

The most important human factor in the policy-making process is the homogeneity of the political and business elites. They tend to be graduates of a relatively small number of top-ranked universities, such as the University of Tokyo and Keio University. Regardless of these individuals' regional or class origins, their similar educational backgrounds encourage their feeling of community, as is reflected in the finely meshed network of marriage alliances between top official and financial circle (zaikai) families. The institution of early retirement also foster homogeneity. In the practice of amakudari, or descent from heaven, as it is popularly known, bureaucrats retiring in their fifties often assume top positions in public corporations and private enterprise. They also become politicians. By the late 1980s, most postwar prime ministers had had civil service backgrounds.

This homogeneity facilitates the free flow of ideas among members of the elite in informal settings. Bureaucrats and business people that are associated with a single industry, such as electronics, often hold regular informal meetings in Tokyo hotels and restaurants. Political scientist T.J. Pempel has pointed out that the concentration of political and economic power in Tokyo—particularly the small geographic area of its central wards—makes it easy for leaders, who are almost without exception denizens of the capital, to have repeated personal contact. Another often overlooked factor is the tendency of elite males not to be family men. Late night work and bar-hopping schedules give them ample opportunity to hash and rehash policy matters and engage in haragei (literally, belly art), or intimate, often nonverbal communication. Comparable to the warriors of ancient Sparta, who lived in barracks apart from their families during much of their adulthood, the business and bureaucratic elites are expected to sacrifice their private lives for the national good.

Formal Policy Development

After a largely informal process within elite circles in which ideas were discussed and developed, steps might be taken to institute more formal policy development. This process often took place in deliberation councils (shingikai). There were about 200 shingikai, each attached to a ministry; their members were both officials and prominent private individuals in business, education, and other fields. The shingikai played a large role in facilitating communication among those who ordinarily might not meet. Given the tendency for real negotiations in Japan to be conducted privately (in the nemawashi, or root binding, process of consensus building), the shingikai often represented a fairly advanced stage in policy formulation in which relatively minor differences could be thrashed out and the resulting decisions couched in language acceptable to all. These bodies were legally established but had no authority to oblige governments to adopt their recommendations.

The most important deliberation council during the 1980s was the Provisional Commission for Administrative Reform, established in March 1981 by Prime Minister Suzuki Zenko. The commission had nine members, assisted in their deliberations by six advisers, twenty-one "expert members," and around fifty "councillors" representing a wide range of groups. Its head, Keidanren president Doko Toshio, insisted that government agree to take its recommendations seriously and commit itself to reforming the administrative structure and the tax system. In 1982 the commission had arrived at several recommendations that by the end of the decade had been actualized. These implementations included tax reform; a policy to limit government growth; the establishment, in 1984, of the Management and Coordination Agency to replace the Administrative Management Agency in the Office of the Prime Minister; and privatization of the state-owned railroad and telephone systems. In April 1990, another deliberation council, the Election Systems Research Council, submitted proposals that included the establishment of single-seat constituencies in place of the multiple-seat system.

Another significant policy-making institution in the early 1990s was the LDP's Policy Research Council. It consisted of a number of committees, composed of LDP Diet members, with the committees corresponding to the different executive agencies. Committee members worked closely with their official counterparts, advancing the requests of their constituents, in one of the most effective means through which interest groups could state their case to the bureaucracy through the channel of the ruling party.

Post-war political development

Political parties had begun to revive almost immediately after the occupation began. Left-wing organizations, such as the Japan Socialist Party and the Japanese Communist Party, quickly reestablished themselves, as did various conservative parties. The old Seiyokai and Rikken Minseito came back as, respectively, the Liberal Party (Nihon Jiyuto) and the Japan Progressive Party (Nihon Shimpoto). The first postwar elections were held in 1946 (women were given the franchise for the first time), and the Liberal Party's vice president, Yoshida Shigeru (1878-1967), became prime minister. For the 1947 elections, anti-Yoshida forces left the Liberal Party and joined forces with the Progressive Party to establish the new Democratic Party (Minshuto). This divisiveness in conservative ranks gave a plurality to the Japan Socialist Party, which was allowed to form a cabinet, which lasted less than a year. Thereafter, the socialist party steadily declined in its electoral successes. After a short period of Democratic Party administration, Yoshida returned in late 1948 and continued to serve as prime minister until 1954.

Even before Japan regained full sovereignty, the government had rehabilitated nearly 80,000 people who had been purged, many of whom returned to their former political and government positions. A debate over limitations on military spending and the sovereignty of the emperor ensued, contributing to the great reduction in the Liberal Party's majority in the first postoccupation elections (October 1952). After several reorganizations of the armed forces, in 1954 the Japan Self-Defense Forces were established under a civilian director. Cold War realities and the hot war in nearby Korea also contributed significantly to the United States-influenced economic redevelopment, the suppression of communism, and the discouragement of organized labor in Japan during this period.

Continual fragmentation of parties and a succession of minority governments led conservative forces to merge the Liberal Party (Jiyuto) with the Japan Democratic Party (Nihon Minshuto), an offshoot of the earlier Democratic Party, to form the Liberal Democratic Party (Jiyu-Minshuto; LDP) in November 1955. This party continuously held power from 1955 through 1993, when it was replaced by a new minority government. LDP leadership was drawn from the elite who had seen Japan through the defeat and occupation; it attracted former bureaucrats, local politicians, businessmen, journalists, other professionals, farmers, and university graduates. In October 1955, socialist groups reunited under the Japan Socialist Party, which emerged as the second most powerful political force. It was followed closely in popularity by the Komeito (Clean Government Party), founded in 1964 as the political arm of the Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Society), until 1991 a lay organization affiliated with the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist sect. The Komeito emphasized traditional Japanese beliefs and attracted urban laborers, former rural residents, and many women. Like the Japan Socialist Party, it favored the gradual modification and dissolution of the Japan-United States Mutual Security Assistance Pact.

Recent political developments

LDP domination lasted until the Diet Lower House elections on July 18, 1993, in which the LDP failed to win a majority.

A coalition of new parties and existing opposition parties formed a governing majority and elected a new prime minister, Morihiro Hosokawa, in August 1993. His government's major legislative objective was political reform, consisting of a package of new political financing restrictions and major changes in the electoral system. The coalition succeeded in passing landmark political reform legislation in January 1994.

In April 1994, Prime Minister Hosokawa resigned. Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata formed the successor coalition government, Japan's first minority government in almost 40 years. Prime Minister Hata resigned less than 2 months later.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama formed the next government in June 1994, a coalition of his Japan Socialist Party (JSP), the LDP, and the small New Party Sakigake. The advent of a coalition containing the JSP and LDP shocked many observers because of their previously fierce rivalry.

Prime Minister Murayama served from June 1994 to January 1996. He was succeeded by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who served from January 1996 to July 1998. Prime Minister Hashimoto headed a loose coalition of three parties until the July 1998 Upper House election, when the two smaller parties cut ties with the LDP.

Hashimoto resigned due to a poor electoral showing by the LDP in those Upper House elections. He was succeeded as party president of the LDP and prime minister by Keizo Obuchi, who took office on July 30, 1998.

The LDP formed a governing coalition with the Liberal Party in January 1999, and Keizo Obuchi remained prime minister. The LDP-Liberal coalition expanded to include the New Komeito Party in October 1999.

Prime Minister Obuchi suffered a stroke in April 2000 and was replaced by Yoshiro Mori. After the Liberal Party left the coalition in April 2000, Prime Minister Mori welcomed a Liberal Party splinter group, the New Conservative Party, into the ruling coalition. The three-party coalition made up of the LDP, New Komeito, and the New Conservative Party maintained its majority in the Diet following the June 2000 Lower House elections.

After a turbulent year in office in which he saw his approval ratings plummet to the single digits, Prime Minister Mori agreed to hold early elections for the LDP presidency in order to improve his party's chances in crucial July 2001 Upper House elections. On April 24, 2001, riding a wave of grassroots desire for change, maverick politician Junichiro Koizumi defeated former Prime Minister Hashimoto and other party stalwarts on a platform of economic and political reform. Koizumi was elected as Japan's 87th Prime Minister on April 26, 2001.

On October 11, 2003, the Prime Minister Koizumi dissolved the lower house after he was re-elected as the president of the LDP. (See Japan general election, 2003) Likewise, that year, the LDP won the election, even though it suffered setbacks from the new opposition party, the liberal and social-democratic Democrat Party. A similar event occurred during the 2004 Upper House Elections.

On August 8, 2005, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called a snap election to the lower house, as threatened, after LDP stalwarts and opposition DPJ parliamentarians defeated his proposal for a large-scale reform and privatisation of Japan Post, which besides being Japan's state-owned postal monopoly is arguably the world's largest financial institution, with nearly 331 trillion yen of assets. The election was scheduled for September 11, 2005, and was won in a landslide by Junichiro Koizumi's LDP.

Japan's Political Parties

Liberal Democratic Party

The LDP is Japan's largest political party and the senior partner in the current governing coalition. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a member of this political party. It is a conservative party of the right-wing and is made up of various conservative and reformist factions. The LDP has been in power almost continuously since 1955, when it was formed as a merger of early postwar Japan's two conservative parties, the Liberal Party of Japan, Occupation, and the Democrat Party of Japan, Occupation. The party is characterized as being very conservative on social and foreign matters.

Democratic Party of Japan

The DPJ is Japan's second largest party and leads the opposition. It is a liberal and almost social-democratic party of the left-wing. It is the largest opposition party, and was formed in the late 1990s as a result of the merger of several anti-LDP parties. Quite liberal and oppositional on key issues, as well as moderately social-democratic. It is against the Iraq war, and is led by Seiji Maehara.

New Clean Government Party

The Shin Komeito Party (Japanese name for the New Clean Government Party) is Japan's third largest party and the governing party's junior partner. It was formerly known as the Clean Government Political Assembly and the Clean Government Party (Former). The party is a conservative party of the right-wing, but it is also the political wing of Soka Gakkai, an almost militant sect of Nichiren Buddhism. Therefore, it is also considered a theocratic Buddhist party. It has moderated its stance however. Because it is partners with the LDP, it is unopposed to the war in Iraq. It is now led by Takenori Kanzaki.

Japanese Communist Party

The Japanese Communist Party is Japan's fourth largest party and the middle partner of the opposition coalition. It is a moderate communist party of the left-wing. Though it is communist, it is a very moderate communist party, and is not against religion and does not want the emperor to step down. It supports multi-party democracy and does not advocate the imposition of radical change on Japanese society. That is why the Communists have more seats than the Social Democrat Party. It is very pacifist and does not support an alliance with the United States.

Social Democratic Party (Japan)

The Social Democrat Party of Japan is Japan's fifth largest party and the junior partner in the opposition coalition. It is a moderate social-democratic party of the left-wing. It is seen more as a moderate social-democratic, and populist party rather than a revolutionary socialist party. It grew out of the Japan Socialist Party and the Democratic Socialist Party (Japan) It is not popular in Japan and the Communists have more votes than the Social Democrats. It is against the war in Iraq.

Minor Political Parties

Liberal League

The Liberal League is a right-wing party in Japan, which, despite its name, is actually conservative. The party is not very popular among the Japanese people, but it has 1 seat so far in the Diet.

Other minor parties

Japan has other minor parties, but these are just about defunct. Most other parties are communist and socialist parties, as well as a few nationalist, reformist, and even racist and far right-wing parties. But these have no power, and some are just about defunct.

Census

The government of Japan collects information on the population. The 2005 census collects information on population, age, sex, household size, work and income as of the end of September.

Reference

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External Links

electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies