Tokyo's Governor Minobe and Progressive Local Politics in Japan

Abstract

IN THE 1960s and 1970s there have been fundamental changes at the local level of Japanese politics. The administrative and political structures described by Kurt Steiner in his book on Japanese local government' were established well before the social and economic repercussions of the nation's postwar growth began to be felt, not only by citizens but also by local administrations caught between a rigid, centrallycontrolled local government system and the increasing demands of local residents for improved services and facilities. One aspect of change at the local level has been the increasing electoral support for kakushin (progressive) candidates and consequently the increasing number of progressive local assemblymen and local executives (village, town and city mayors and prefectural governors). Long years of centralist bureaucratic rule had encouraged almost total conservative domination of local government until the 1960s, but by April 1975 over 20%o of the country's 642 mayoral positions and ten of the 47 governorships were held by progressives.2