POLI/INTL 355, Review 2, Spring 2017
Bill Newmann
Is Japan
changing?
Can Japan
change?
Themes in Japanese political culture:
1. Homogeneity
*unity
exceptions:
*Koreans
in Japan
burakumin
*status
of women
2. *uniqueness
3. *isolation
4. *borrowing
5. *geography
*relationship
of geography to Japanese independence (never experiencing colonialism)
6. *communitarian
rice
growing and community
7. adaptability/organizational
ability
8. *emperor
9. *power behind the scenes
lack of confrontation
Political History:
1. Growth of Feudal Japan
centralization of government
Feudal Japan
*Shogun
*Samurai
culture--loyalty, self sacrifice
*Tokugawa family unifies Japan
2. Tokugawa era:
*unification/centralization of power
*isolation
*Trade with Dutch
3. Meiji Restoration
Birth of modern Japan
*A restoration and revolution
*1853: Commodore Perry and US
ultimatum
Trade Treaties
Effect on Tokugawa rule
1868 – overthrow
*Satsuma
and Choshu clans
*Restoration
of Emperor
*Nationalism
Meiji era reforms
*Borrowing – Iwakura
Mission
1889 constitution
Diet
Genro role
*Industrialization
Military reforms
*Sino-Japanese War 1894-5
*Russo-Japanese War 1904-5
4. Nationalism and War:
*Nationalists vs. Institutionalists
Manchuria - 1931
*Into the rest of China - 1937
*Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere
*Atrocities
*Rape
of Nanjing
*Hiroshima/Nagasaki
End of WW II
*Gen. Douglas MacArthur (as Emperor
of Japan?)
*Punishment
*Demilitarization
*Article
9
*1946 Constitution
*Emperor: Post-war position
Diet
House
of Councillors
House
of Representatives
1994
Electoral Reform
Single-member districts (SMD)
Proportional
Representation
Prime Minister
Electing
Prime Ministers (know the PPT slides on this)
New PM without election (resignation
of PM)
No-Confidence vote: This will be on the
exam
PM dissolving Diet (Know how this
differs from other parliamentary processes)
Cabinet
Ministries
*The power of the bureaucracy and why
Japan may be incapable of change
Administrative Vice Minister
*Iron Triangle and how each member
plays its part
*The "1955 System"
*Liberal-Democratic Party
*LDP
Factions
*Tanaka
Kakuei and power behind the scenes
*Japan Socialist Party/Social
Democratic Party of Japan
Why does the LDP dominate? (know all
the reasons)
*LDP’s money advantage
*LDP and rural vote: how the House of
Representatives is gerrymandered to favor rural vote
*Public Works spending
Consensus Politics
One and a Half Party System
Japanese economy (“Japan Inc.”) (Ignore the PPT slideshow on Japan Inc.)
*A miracle
*A model
*Business-Government partnership
*Yoshida Doctrine
Administrative Guidance
Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) now METI
*Lifetime employment
*The Salaryman
Japan Since 1990
*Collapse of Bubble economy
*Recession beginning in 1990
*LDP scandals and PM’s resigning
(1989-1993) (know the extent of it, not the details of any scandals)
Electoral reform bill and hopes it
would create two-party system
*1993 election
Fate of LDP in election
Fate of SDPJ in election
*Not-LDP coalition
*Collapse of Not-LDP coalition/LDP
back in power
*Ozawa Ichiro’s role
*Two party system?
*New
Frontier Party
*Democratic Party of Japan
LDP challenged by opposition:
opposition failed to bring down LDP
Reform of LDP rules for choosing LDP
leader
Challenging the LDP from within:
Election of Koizumi Junichiro
*Administrative Reform
*Prime Minister power
*Koizumi’s reform plans
*breaking the iron triangle
*Japan Post Office System
*Opponents of reform
*LDP anti-reform faction bosses
*Iron Triangle/Bureaucracy
*Postal reform bill is defeated
*Koizumi calls elections 2005
*The political stakes
*Election results
*Postal reforms passes
*A revolution?
Koizumi retires
LDP back to old ways
*2008-2009 recession
*Election of 2009
*DPJ victory
*Is it a Two Party system?
*Great East Japan Earthquake
*Fukushima Nuclear Plant
*The damage
*The Government response
Election of 2012
*Abe Shinzo