POLI/INTL 355, Review 1, Fall 2009
Bill Newmann
Is
Can Japan
change?
I. Political Culture and Political
Development
A.
History
B.
Culture/Political Culture
C.
Foreign influence
Themes in Japanese political culture:
1. *Homogeneity
*unity
exceptions:
Koreans
in
burakumin
status of women
2. uniqueness
*educating
people to be Japanese
3. *isolation
4. borrowing
5. geography
relationship of geography to Japanese independence (never
experiencing colonialism)
*6. communitarian
rice growing and community
crowding
*individualism?
*conformity and Japaneseness
7. adaptability/organizational
ability
8. emperor
9. power
behind the scenes
*lack of confrontation
Political History:
1. Growth of Feudal
centralization of government
Feudal
Shogun
*Samurai
culture--loyalty, self sacrifice
Tokugawa family unifies
2. Tokugawa era:
unification
*isolation
3. Meiji Restoration
Birth of modern
A restoration and revolution
1853:
Trade Treaties
Effect on Tokugawa control
1868 -- overthrow
Restoration
of Emperor
"Honor
the emperor and expel the barbarians"
Genro
Nationalism
Conscious borrowing
Meiji era reforms
1889 constitution
Diet
Genro role
Industrialization
Military reforms
Sino-Japanese War 1894-5
Russo-Japanese War 1904-5
4. Nationalism and War:
Genro factionalism in the Government,
Diet, and Military
Depression
nationalism
*Nationalists vs. Institutionalists
*Role of military
Expansion and the reasons why
Into the rest of
Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere
Atrocities
Rape
of
Hiroshima/Nagasaki
End of WW II
II. Actors and Processes
A. Government Structure
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
SCAP
Punishment
Demilitarization
Article
9
1946 Constitution
Emperor: Post-war position
Diet
House
of Councillors
House
of Representatives
Single-member
districts
Proportional representation
Prime Minister
Electing
Prime Ministers
PM dissolving Diet
No-Confidence
votes
New
PM without election (resignation of PM)
Cabinet
Ministries
*The power of the bureaucracy and why
*Administrative Vice Minister
*Iron Triangle
B. Political parties
*The "1955 System"
*Liberal-Democratic Party
*LDP
Factions
*Why
does the LDP dominate?
Social
Democratic Party of
Consensus Politics
One and a Half Party System
III. Public Policy
A.
Economics/State/Business/Bureaucracy Roles and Relationships
B.
Political Stability and Economic Growth
General descriptions of the Japanese
economy (“Japan Inc.”)
1. A miracle
2. A model
3. Nationalist/protectionist vs.
Liberal
the use of trade barriers by
Japanese government
Specific Descriptions of the “Japan
Inc.”
1. Business-Government relations
Yoshida Doctrine
*"administrative guidance"
*goal of government-business
partnership
*Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI)
*its
policies
2. Industry-Industry relations
*zaibatsu
*Keiretsu
*loyalty
to keiretsu/group identification
Why
create keiretsu?
Keiretsu
as a trade barrier
3. Human Resources/Labor-Management
Relations
*Crushing of independent unions
*Company unions
*Lifetime employment
*Success of Japan Inc.
Problems:
Inflexibility
Layoffs?
Entrepreneurship?
Keiretsu and flexibility
Iron Triangle
Protectionism
Recent Politics and Economics:
Overview:
Recession
Challenges
to 1955 System
– LDP in flux
– External challenges
(other parties)
– Collapse of
the left
– A new
center-right 1 and ˝ party system
– Internal
challenges (Koizumi)
– 2009: Two
Party System?
1980s-present:
scandals
collapse of bubble economy
political debates of 1990s
opening up the economy
lifestyle superpower
role in world politics: “normal nation”
Events of 1992-1993
More scandals
Electoral reform bill
1993 election
Not-LDP coalition
Its
policies
PM Hosokawa Morihiro
Fate of LDP
Fate of SDPJ
Collapse of Not-LDP coalition/LDP
back in power
What has changed?
Electoral reform passed
Two party system?
New
Frontier Party
Democratic Party of
LDP challenged by opposition:
opposition failed to bring down LDP
Challenging the LDP from within:
Election of Koizumi Junichiro
LDP reforms its selection process for
President – more democratic
Koizumi’s reform plans
breaking the iron triangle
Opponents of reform
LDP anti-reform faction bosses
Iron Triangle/Bureaucracy
November 2003 election: Koizumi does
well, but not too well
DPJ does well: picks up seats
2005
Postal reform bill is defeated
Koizumi calls elections
The political stakes
Election results
Postal reforms passes
A revolution?
Koizumi retires
LDP back to old ways
Collapse of LDP popularity 2008-2009
2008-2009 recession
Election of 2009
DPJ victory
DPJ policies