Local Political Leadership in Japan: A Harbinger of Systemic Change in Japanese Politics?

Abstract

Observers of Japanese politics have generally assumed that because Japan is a unitary state, local government and its political chief executives have very little political and policy autonomy. Yet the assumption that a high degree of centralization in the political structure prevents leadership at the local level is misguided. Three case studies demonstrate that local chief executives from the peripheries are now more than ever demonstrating leadership at the local level. Local chief executives are increasingly challenging central government plans and policy priorities for local areas by setting policy agendas to follow their own vision and local needs, rather than accepting the center's fiat. Using the typology of transactional and transformational styles of leadership, this article argues that trends observed in some localities may be the harbinger of transformational leadership from the local level, as local government takes a more salient place in Japan's political system.