Japan

Japan

Densely populated and lacks natural resources

  • 80% live in urban setting

  • 50%live in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya

Four main islands: Hokkaido (Japan and Russia dispute here), Honshu (main island), Kyushu (U.S. presence), Shikoku (Japan and China territorial dispute here)

  • Lots of mountainous terrain, only ¼ habitable and 10% arable

  • Japan depends on import for ¾ of its food and most crucial inputs for an advanced industrial economy

North Korea test and fire nukes in Sea of Japan towards Japan, they would miss and fall in sea

Historical Development

1853- arrival of U.S. navy/Matthew Perry -> Japan forced to open up to world after 200 years of isolation/engage in free trade -> led to Japanese being brought together -> Meiji Restoration


Meiji Restoration - a “revolution from above” that launched Japan’s modernization in the name of Meiji Emperor

  • Professionalization of military/creation of European style standing military (most important outcome of restoration)

    • Victories over two big empires (imperial China and Russia) -> expansion of territory -> participation in WWII

  • Ultra-nationalism

  • Industrialization of economy


Defeat in WWII -> American occupation of Japan following WWII

  • Creation of constitution created by Americans - very similar to U.S. (still in effect today)

Essential Political Features

Legislative-executive system - Parliamentary

Legislature: Diet -> both houses are directly elected (different than other systems)

  • Lower house: House of Representatives (more powerful, right to choose PM, like U.K., and power to override House of Councillors with ⅔ majority); can be dissolved by PM and call for snap elections in order to regain more power (may lose more seats than gain), but lower house also has power to vote of no confidence to remove PM; 465 members; four year terms

  • UpperHouse: House of Councillors; 248 seats; fixed 6 year terms

  • Ideally, as a PM, you would want your party to control both houses because it would be able to do anything (LDP had this in late 20th century but has since declined in power)

    • When this is not the case, it is a twisted diet

Unitary state 

Main geographic subunits: prefectures (locally elected): has power to raise own revenue in part, but most of funds come from centralized government in Tokyo

Electoral system for lower house: mixed single member districts and PR

  • Upper house uses different system: single transferable votes

Head of Government: Prime Minister chosen from lower house/leader of majority party

Head of state: who is head of state?

Key Points

Japanese emperor is a symbol of the state, but is not technically head of state

Article 9/Peace Clause - stipulates that Japan “would forever renounce war as a sovereign right” and never maintain “land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential”

  • However they do have military forces under the name of self-defense forces -> really well-funded and powerful

  • Lots of attempts to amend this article but none have been successful

Structure of Government

Electorate elects both houses -> lower house picks emperor and PM/Cabinet -> PM and Cabinet pick bureaucrats 

Bureaucrats, big business/corporations and House of Reps/PM interact in a beneficial relationship- Iron triangle

Bureaucracy is most powerful even though their powers are not given by the constitution

Party System

One and a half party system: politics largely dominated by LDP for a long period of time, controlled government for most of time since 1955 when it was founded

  • LDP can best be understood as a collection of politicians acting as independent political entrepreneurs who prioritizes electoral success over ideological consistency

    • Iron triangle contributes to this as their loyalties lie with appeasing them because they will help them continue to get elected, along with pork-barrel legislation

Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)- formed in 1998 from reform-minded opposition parties, the DPJ won a historic victory in 2009 but failed to secure a ⅔ majority

  • Voters rejected them in 2012, leading to the LDP’s return to power and the DPJ’s decline

    •  Due to bad management of 2011 earthquake/natural disasters

Iron Traible

A conservative alliance among politics, bureacuracy, and business/corporate executives

  • Bureaucrats retired very early and would then work for the corporations they once regulated as bureaucrats

This informal institutional arrangement supported Japan’s postwar economic development and political stability

Japanese unelected elite bureaucrats enjoy great power in the policy making process

  • Some would argue this an undemocratic part of Japanese society

Ethnic/national

JApan is largely racially and ethnically homogenous

  • Cultural assimilation is difficult, adn the naturalization process is very hard/invasive

Immigrants constitute only 1% of population and foreign nationals comprise only 2%

  • In most countries, immigrants make up most of the workforce

Japan hesitant to fully integrate women and immigrants into workplace

  • Japan finds itself having problems like many advanced industrial societies

    • Aging population

    • Declining fertility rates

      • Declining workforce


Economy

Neo-mercantilist political economic system characterized by a focus on national economic growth rather than freedom and equality

Foster corporate welfare measures and saw a rapid increase in Japan’s currency value, leading to a dramatic rise in the country’s stock and real estate markets in the late 1980s

Today, Japan is Asia’s largest provider of technology and investment capital

Even as the economy has begun to turn around, it remains plagued by the three D’s

  • Deflation (more money in system but people not buying goods), government debt (growing number of older people=>spend more money on welfare/care for them), and budget deficits

Emperor

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s PM from 2006-07 and 2012-2020, assassinated in 2022

  • Abe has retired as Japan’s longest-serving head of government in SEptember 2020 and was Japan’s most influential politician of the modern era

Most notably Abe’s government launched a three-pronged recover program named Abenomics

First arrow was economic stimulus measures, second aimed at boosting inflation (get people to spend more money), and third provided for a broad array of structural reforms (corruption, bureaucracy->many claim this never worked/never implemented)


Examples of Japan’s extensive clientelism? -> how it affects quality of democracy


How does Japanese democracy differ from other advanced industrial democracies?

  • Lots of people employed within markets are not immigrants