Prime Ministers

Abstract

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was abruptly hospitalized for two weeks in September 2007, the Financial Times commented that Japan might be able to function without a prime minister because Abe had not even appointed an acting prime minister. Abe’s chief cabinet secretary provided bedside briefings to him for two weeks, at the end of which Abe resigned from office.1 This event and other similar examples of Japanese prime ministers give sometimes the impression that Japan is a country without a leader. Karel Van Wolferen’s writings exemplify this view well.2 In examining three recent Japanese prime ministers—Shigeru Yoshida, Kakuei Tanaka, and Junichiro Koizumi—I make two points: 1. That the political system of Japan carries heavy legacies from the early modern period and that the floundering of Japanese-style absolutism in the late sixteenth century paved the course of Japanese political development in a fragmented and fissiparous fashion.3 2. That the effectiveness of a prime minister to forge a solid coalition in harmony with the spirit of his time while in office is key to his ability to overcome the limited constitutional and institutional authority allocated to the Office of Prime Minister. KeywordsPrime MinisterLiberal Democratic PartyOpposition PartiMilitary OccupationStrong Economic GrowthThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.