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 politicians
big business
executives
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)