Democracy In Japan Research Articles

Book Review: International Relations: Nationalism, Political Realism and Democracy in Japan: The Thought of Masao Maruyama

Book Review: International Relations: Nationalism, Political Realism and Democracy in Japan: The Thought of Masao Maruyama

Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: Malfunctioning Democracy in Japan

Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: Malfunctioning Democracy in Japan

Love, Sex, and Democracy in Japan during the American Occupation. By Mark McLelland New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.Scream from the Shadows: The Women’s Liberation Movement in Japan. By Setsu Shigematsu. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

<i>Love, Sex, and Democracy in Japan during the American Occupation</i>. By Mark McLelland New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.<i>Scream from the Shadows: The Women’s Liberation Movement in Japan</i>. By Setsu Shigematsu. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

Japan's Democracy at Risk The LDP's Ten Most Dangerous Proposals for Constitutional Change

Japan’s dominant political party, the “Liberal Democratic Party” (LDP), returned to power following a big victory in parliamentary elections held in December 2012. On April 28 of that year, the LDP released comprehensive proposals to amend Japan’s Constitution. The date was selected to commemorate the end of Japan’s Occupation by foreign military forces sixty years before. The initial draft of Japan's present Constitution was prepared by American military officers in February 1946 and it was reviewed and adopted by the national parliament while the country was under occupation. It has never been amended. Many of the nation’s political leaders have harbored a deep resentment ever since and have vowed to rid the nation of the “foreign Constitution.”The 2012 LDP revision proposals begin with a re-wording of the Preamble and extend throughout the document. They take direct aim at the concept of universal human rights. This attack is explained in an LDP pamphlet released in October 2012: Rights are gradually formulated through the history, tradition and culture of each community. Therefore, we believe that the provisions concerning human rights should reflect the history, culture and tradition of Japan. The current Constitution includes some provisions based on the theory of natural rights. We believe these provisions should be revised. This article reports on several of the proposed revisions. In the process of rejecting the western theory of natural rights, the LDP authors would significantly expand state power and limit individual rights protection.

Democracy in Japan

Brief Background ost people seem to be under the impression that democracy was introduced to Japan at the end of World War II. Well – not so much introduced as imposed upon the Japanese people by the Allied Forces. While this may be true to some extent, it is important to note that the seeds of democracy already existed in Japanese society in the early 20th century, which explains the relative ease of transition to democratic processes and receptivity of democratic institutions. Another factor that facilitated the transition from an ultranationalist, militarist government was the retention of the imperial system. Although now mostly symbolic, it nevertheless had a stabilizing effect for the Japanese people at a time of great turbulence and change in the aftermath of war. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5564/mjia.v0i18.74 Mongolian Journal of International Affairs No.18 2013: 118-122

Book Review: Britain and Ireland: Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community are Changing Modern Electoral Politics

Popular Democracy in Japan : How Gender and Community are Changing Modern Electoral Politics by Sherry L. Martin

Report: Labour in Japan: a meltdown into management

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 22 Volume 20 Issue 4 2013 REPORT ❐ LABOUR MOVEMENT IN JAPAN Initially the US occupation encouraged trade unions in Japan but as communistinspired unions surged this policy saw a rapid about-turn - a ‘Red Purge’ began and a three-year limit was placed on the lifetime of collective agreements sidered to be the Cold War. SCAP intended to regulate the strike of the trade union and suppress communism in Japan. In addition, SCAP wanted to deveop the Japanese economy for a more independent alliance with the US. First of all SCAP demanded that the Japanese government restrict the trade union organised by public service workers. In responding to this demand, the Japanese government took the following measures as for public service workers who accounted for 40 percent of organised workers by the reform of the National Public Service Act in October 1948. These measures were (i) excluding an application of TUA 1945 to public service workers (so that TUA 1945 got to be applied only to the private-sector workers), (ii) prohibiting all public service workers from going on strikes by criminalising strikes, (iii) introducing different treatment between managerial workers and non-managerial workers which made it less likely for managerial workers to take part in unions, (iv) prohibiting payment to full-time union officials. The Demand of SCAP with Regard to Japanese Economy and the Reform of TUA 1945 As noted previously, SCAP intended to boost the Japanese economy in order to situate Japan in the factory of Asia as a bulwark against communism as soon as possible because of the Cold War. The US government declared nine principles about the policy for the Japanese economy. With regard to the industrial relations policy, the Japanese government published a new Ordinance in December 1948. This Ordinance required the trade unions to democratise their organisations. SCAP and the Japanese government thought that most trade unions were dominated by a few communist leaders. The democratisation of the trade unions meant that communist leaders of the trade union could be excluded from these organisations. In addition, the Japanese government intervened in collective agreements by this ordinance in order to make collective agreements unfavourable to workers. The reason of this intervention was that the Japanese government thought most collective agreements were advantageous to workers and that these collective agreements could be the cause of stagnating Japanese economy. In June 1949, TUA 1945 was revised to TUA 1949. TUA 1949 has required trade unions to establish an internal rule which ensures their democratic and impartial operation. TUA 1949 has also stipulated the rule by which managerial workers are prevented from joining trade unions. Furthermore TUA 1949 has set the rule of the colA lthough the activity of the trade union to strike had been restricted strictly by the Japanese government before World War II, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (‘SCAP’) tried, after the war, to promote organising workers in trade unions in order to democratise Japan. Therefore, immediately after WW2 and up to 1949, the density of the trade union in Japan increased rapidly to 55.8 percent. After 1949, however, the trade union density declined rapidly. Since then there has been a steady decline in density. More importantly it has come to be pointed out by some scholars in Japanese industrial relations that the Japanese trade unions have melted into management. In this article, it will be argued what processes after WW2 fueled this meltdown into management. The Enactment of TUA 1945 and the General Strike on 1 Feb 1947 Immediately after WW2, SCAP required the Japanese government to take several measures in order to promote democracy in Japan which included promoting trade unions. Responding to the demand of SCAP, the Trade Union Act (‘TUA’) 1945 was enacted on 22 December 1945. In addition the Constitution of Japan which included the guarantee of the right to organise, the right of collective bargaining and the right to strike to workers was published as a new constitution in 1946. The constitutional labour rights and TUA 1945 had continuity in terms of having the purpose of promoting democracy by improving the labour conditions. After WW2 the Japanese trade union were very...

Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community Are Changing Modern Electoral Politics (review)

Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community Are Changing Modern Electoral Politics (review)

Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community are Changing Modern Electoral Politics by Sherry Martin

Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community are Changing Modern Electoral Politics <i>by Sherry Martin</i>

The Supreme Court and Benign Elite Democracy in Japan (review)

Reviewed by: The Supreme Court and Benign Elite Democracy in Japan Daniel H. Foote (bio) The Supreme Court and Benign Elite Democracy in Japan. By Hiroshi Itoh. Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, UK, 2010. xvi, 344 pages. $124.95. The Supreme Court and Benign Elite Democracy in Japan is a valuable addition to the literature on Japan’s judicial system. The author, State University of New York at Plattsburgh Professor Hiroshi Itoh, very likely knows more about the inner workings of the Japanese Supreme Court than any other outsider. Indeed, he probably knows more about that institution than many of those who have worked within its fortress-like walls. Much of that knowledge is crystallized in this volume, making it an indispensable work for anyone interested in the Supreme Court or the judicial system in general. Still, given the author’s deep knowledge and expertise, one might be excused for wishing for even more. Generations of students of Japanese law have relied on translations of Supreme Court opinions contained in collections compiled and edited by Itoh and Lawrence Beer. As those works attest, Itoh is deeply versed in the Court’s jurisprudence. If anything, he is even more deeply versed in the Court’s institutional processes. He appears to have read most of what has ever been written about the Court, including memoirs by numerous former [End Page 212] justices. Most important, since 1980 he has conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 40 retired justices, as well as several of the research judges who assist the justices, three former prime ministers, and numerous other government officials, lawyers, and scholars. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that early in my own research on the Japanese judiciary I benefited greatly from the opportunity to accompany Itoh for interviews with a few retired justices.) Nearly all the interview subjects evidently were willing to speak to Itoh on the record. The book is filled with details provided by former justices, with the sources cited by name, and consists of six chapters, together with an introduction, conclusions, and four appendices (one of which lists all 153 justices through mid-2009). Chapter 1 introduces the theme of “elite governance.” The chapter commences with a brief overview of governance structures from the Tokugawa period to the present, followed by a brief history of the judicial system. The most interesting part of the chapter is an examination of “judicial elitism,” which, according to Itoh, “consists of a triumvirate of the . . . justices of the Supreme Court, the upper echelon of the Supreme Court General Secretariat, and top judicial administrators of the lower courts” (p. 26). This triumvirate dominates judicial administration and “exerts a pervasive influence” (p. 26) over personnel policy, including appointments, promotions, and transfers of lower court judges. While the theme of internal control of the judiciary has been explored by many others, Itoh enriches the debate by providing the views of various justices regarding concrete aspects of the system. Chapter 2 offers a detailed account of the decisional process at the Supreme Court. The longest section, and to me the most interesting (although that may reflect my personal bias as a former law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court), is the examination of the role of research judges, a group of midcareer judges who assist the justices. Itoh states that, next to the justice, the research judge “is the second most important actor in the judicial process” (p. 57). After reading his detailed account, one cannot help feeling that, in many respects, the research judge is the most important actor in the process, at least for the vast majority of cases. To me, the most thoroughly satisfying chapter is chapter 3, which contains a detailed case study of a major administrative law case, the Osaka airport case, in which nearby residents, complaining of noise pollution, sought damages and an injunction banning night flights. Itoh traces the litigation from its inception in 1969 through three stages of judicial decisions: district court, high court, and Supreme Court Grand Bench. The case study provides a fascinating example of numerous facets of Supreme Court proceedings. Yet the significance extends far beyond activities at the Court. The account reveals complex...

Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community are Changing Modern Electoral Politics by Sherry L. Martin (review)

Reviewed by: Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community are Changing Modern Electoral Politics by Sherry L. Martin Deborah J. Milly Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community are Changing Modern Electoral Politics. By Sherry L. Martin . Cornell University Press, 2011. 216 pages. Hardcover $42.50. For Sherry L. Martin, women are "average" Japanese voters who have come to demand changes in politics. Informing this perspective are general trends that promote popular de­mocracy, especially local political engagement and the expansion of informal social net­works of special significance for women. Popular Democracy in Japan begins with a set of chapters that highlight discontent with politics since the 1990s and the institutional and elec­toral changes that have enabled local groundswells of support for citizens' greater political voice. Martin views these changes especially through the voices and actions of women even though men, too, have come to demand change and have also benefited from institutional opportunities for increased involvement. General conditions of voter alienation, pursuit of better governance, and institutional reallocation of government responsibilities to local communities thus become the frame for examining how and why women have come to seek more from their leaders. The core argument of the book, which becomes clearest in the later chapters, is that government policies to support "lifelong learning" begun in the 1980s have provided a context for promoting women's empowerment through study groups, hobby cir­cles, and other networks of informal learning that bring women together. The book's main contribution is its use of responses to a national survey, focus group discussions, and local case examples to provide insight into the minds-and sometimes the actions-of voters. At times, however, the author's interpretation goes beyond what the evidence directly supports, and readers are left to question how representative the cases and informants are. In situating women at the center, Martin observes that Japanese women vote more often than men even though they are also more likely to lack affiliation with a specific party and are the least likely among women in G8 countries to be elected as national representatives. Why this disparity in voting rates despite women's seemingly lesser degree of integration into the established social networks that mobilize voters? The answer, Martin contends, lies in the alternative of informal social networks that enable women to be politically active. To make this argument, elaborated in the second part of the book, Martin first presents a broader view-not limited to women-of two trends, political alienation and new op­portunities for local participation, that have characterized Japanese politics since the 1990s. Drawing on responses to open-ended questions from a national survey of voters conducted in 2000, Martin sketches a picture of an electorate that feels distant from politicians and [End Page 381] believes that ordinary citizens have much to contribute to improving governance. She then juxtaposes against these qualitative statements of disaffection the institutional changes that have led elected leaders, especially at the local level, to heed and adapt to these voices. As national politicians have tried to respond to citizens' demands, she explains, they have borrowed from the leadership styles of local politicians. Martin casts a number of shifts in Japanese politics as the product of demands for stronger leaders, demands that have been voiced through recall votes, referenda, and citizen-backed candidates. A prolonged process of administrative decentralization that began in the 1990s has given greater control to local executives who are able to "assume a more prominent role in setting policy agendas, build­ing legislative coalitions, and assembling independent power bases" (p. 51). Martin's take on these trends is that local citizen engagement has led national politicians to learn from local politicians, listen to citizens more, and create more opportunities for direct feedback from citizens to elites. Chapters 3 and 4 draw on focus group discussions and other forms of qualitative data to identify patterns through which citizens-primarily women-have become politically in­volved. The examination in chapter 3 of citizen engagement in Nagano illustrates efforts to develop new relationships among local administrators, citizens, and national officials. Unlike the "traditional" (and mostly male) networks that often mobilized voters in...

Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community Are Changing Modern Electoral Politics

Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Community Are Changing Modern Electoral Politics

Popular democracy in Japan: how gender and community are changing modern electoral politics

Popular democracy in Japan: how gender and community are changing modern electoral politics

Financing democracy in Japan: The allocation and consequences of government subsidies to political parties

In 1994, the Japanese Diet implemented a system of public assistance for political parties which many hoped would encourage party-centred rather than candidate-centred campaigns. This study examines some of the consequences of this system for party organizations and politicians. Using data culled from official subsidy and campaign finance reports, two empirical questions are addressed: first, how has the advent of the subsidy affected the funds available to national party organizations and to individual politicians? Second, what are the factors that shape the allocation of the subsidy from national party organizations to party branches? It is argued that the subsidy has made it easier for party organizations to access funds but that the amounts of subsidies received by individual politicians are generally too small to alleviate much of their fund-raising pressures. In addition, party leaders have allocated the subsidy largely by following a principle of equality.

Fukushi Seiji: Nihon no Seikatsu Hosho to Demokurashi (Welfare Politics: Life Security and Democracy in Japan)

Fukushi Seiji: Nihon no Seikatsu Hosho to Demokurashi (Welfare Politics: Life Security and Democracy in Japan)

Sanctioning Foreign Policy: The Rhetorical Use of President Harry Truman

Throughout his presidency, George W. Bush actively drew connections between the war on terror and World War II and/or the Cold War (see Chernus 2006; Ivie 2005; Noon 2004; Smith 2007). At the time, Bush also drew parallels between his presidency and that of his predecessors. For example, in a speech before the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Bush made comparisons between his administration and that of Harry Truman. He stated, As we advance the cause of freedom in Iraq, our Nation can proceed with confidence that we have done this kind of work before. After World War II, President Harry Truman believed that the way to help bring peace and prosperity to Asia was to plant the seeds of freedom and democracy in Japan. Like today, there were many skeptics and pessimists who said that the Japanese were not ready for democracy. Fortunately, Harry Truman stuck to his guns. He believed, as I do, in freedom's power to transform an adversary into an ally. And because he stayed true to his convictions, today Japan is one of the world's freest and most prosperous nations, and one of America's closest allies in keeping the peace. The spread of freedom to Iraq and the Middle East requires the confidence and persistence, and it will to the (Bush 2005) Here, Bush analogized the circumstances in postwar Japan to that of Iraq in the midst of the war on terror. For President Bush, the parallels between Truman's presidency and his own were undeniable and served as tacit evidence to justify his activities in Iraq. You could read Bush's message to the nation as this: Harry Truman was right about Japan, and my ability to the United States in Iraq is the as his. Thus, my efforts will be conducted with the same confidence and persistence and will lead to the results. Certainly, President Bush's use of the past is not an isolated example. Historical events and persons are often called upon in all aspects of society to celebrate some political purpose or appropriated in some way to meet the needs of the present day. For example, in American popular culture, the 1990s saw a resurgence of World War II nostalgia. Texts such as Saving Private Ryan and Tom Brokaw's best-selling book The Greatest Generation celebrated the contributions of the World War II generation, but more importantly, they offered up a civics lesson to the American people on the virtues of sacrifice and its own exceptionalist nature (Biesecker 2002). In the realm of politics, our discourse, particularly presidential rhetoric, is rife with references to past events and the great presidents of the past, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. When presidents invoke their predecessors, they are calling upon what Philip Abbott (1990) termed the exemplar presidents. Donald Rice (1992) referred to this kind of invocation as the rhetoric of the authorizing figure. Whatever terminology is used, appropriating the memory of historical heroes for present-day purposes is a form of collective memory that performs important political and symbolic work in American politics, in particular presidential foreign policy rhetoric, and is the subject of this inquiry. Specifically, I focus on the presidential foreign policy rhetoric of three contemporary presidents--Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush--and consider how they invoked the memory of Harry Truman. I chose these three presidents because enough time had passed between their presidencies and Truman's to allow for reflection on a number of events that occurred during the Cold War, which may have influenced their foreign policy worldviews. Moreover, these three presidents are the only contemporary ones who served two full terms that were not interrupted by death (JFK) or scandal (Nixon). That is not to say that one-term presidents such as Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush did not call upon the Truman legacy. …

日本の戦後民主主義論における「地域」概念の位置づけ

日本の戦後民主主義論における「地域」概念の位置づけ

The advancement of liberty: how American democratic principles transformed the twentieth century

This book is a counterpoint to the prevailing view that the United States is an imperialist nation that has violently pursued power in the world to advance its own narrow interests. The basic theme is that at the dawn of the 20th century, there were six democracies in the world, but by century's end, democracy was ascendant. This epic historical transformation has been thanks in great measure to the vision and sacrifices made by Americans. Matthew C. Price examines the great conflicts of the 20th century, showing how American democratic principles have utterly reshaped global values and politics. The defeat of fascism and imperialism in World War II led to the Marshall Plan, the single most influential rebuilding program in human history. The fostering of democracy in Japan, the establishment of the UN, and the fall of the Soviet Union reshaped the world in unforeseen ways. America has dedicated itself to democracy in the Middle East, to democratization in China, and to the larger quest for the spread of liberal democratic principles worldwide, even when the struggle is difficult, dangerous, and ongoing. Early in the century, Woodrow Wilson said that America should make the world safe for democracy. In taking up that challenge, the United States changed human history.

Negotiating War Legacies and Postwar Democracy in Japan

This article surveys the ongoing struggles over legacies of World War II within Japan's postwar history. As in Europe, different types of responsibility for the wartime past manifested themselves in changing international and domestic contexts and continuously redefined the relationships between victors, perpetrators of crimes, survivors, and a growing population for whom the war — and increasingly the postwar past — registered only as memory. Under the Allied occupation, Japan's criminal past loomed large in war crimes trials, political reforms, and intellectual discourse but contributed mightily to the deep divisions that have characterized Japan's political landscape ever since. Struggles over Japan's militarist past animated these domestic political divisions through the 1970s over questions of history textbooks, commemorations of the war dead, social relations, as well as Japan's compromised position within Cold War Asia. Globalisation processes beginning in the 1980s brought Japan's colonial past to the fore as questions of individual compensation and state reconciliation began to connect formerly domestic struggles over the legacies of the war to the international politics of historical memory. Both the chronology and the political uses of the wartime past followed a different pattern from Europe, not only because of stark differences between the wars themselves but more critically because of the historical developments that kept Asia as a region divided for decades.

How to Write a Second Restoration: The Political Novel and Meiji Historiography

The Meiji political novel was closely connected to contemporary changes in techniques for the representation of history. Suehiro Tetchō's novel Setchūbai (Plum blossoms in snow, 1886) shares many of the concerns of the historiography of its time, in particular the desire to explain the place of 1868 in Japanese history. The novel positions 1868 as a step in the establishment of democracy in Japan, to be followed by the founding of a liberal parliament in 1890. At the same time, the novel's philosophy of history disqualifies fundamental dissent from the reformist programs espoused by the Meiji government and liberals alike.