The Japanese Constitution

1. The 1889 Meiji Constitution – the Imperial

Constitution (Mixed constitutional and absolute monarchy)

Absolute ruler
Quasi-divine figure

Emperor Hirohito
 World War II

Allied Forces
2. Post-war Constitution, also called Peace Constitution

granted universal suffrage

stripped Emperor Hirohito of all but
symbolic power
stipulated a bill of rights
abolished peerage
outlawed Japan’s right to
make war

By:
Article 9: Denounces war and prohibits Japan to maintain a war potential.

Military Forces Self Defense Forces

 FRAMEWORK:
POLITICS Multi-Party
Bicameral
of Japan Parliamentary
Representative Democratic
Constitutional Monarchy
One-Party Dominant System
•Due to weak opponents, for the
longest time Japan seemed to have a
one-party system.
 Liberal
Democratic Party
• founded in November 1955.
• spent a mere four years and two months out of office
• Between 1955 and 1993, the LDP was in power virtually on its own.
Between August 1994 and January 1996, it was in coalition with the
Social Democratic Party under a Social Democratic Party prime
minister. Since January 1996 it has been the dominant partner in
coalitions (most durably with the Buddhist-based Komeito).
 Politics would be
healthier if alternations
in power were at least
accepted as a normal
part of their political
culture.
However…
…this suggestion is met with
disagreement and occasionally
it is met with perplexity at
hearing such a strange
proposition
On August 30, 2009, the LDP was at last soundly
defeated in a general election…
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came to power.

It appeared that the model of

single-party dominance
was at an end!

That was not to be.

 DPJ government suffered from inexperience, internal
personal and ideological rivalries, insufficient funding
for its ambitious welfare programs as well as a much
weaker nationwide party organization than that of the
LDP.

In the end, the DPJ government had lost most of its reforming
zeal. It took on some of the less attractive features of a typical LDP
government and rapidly fell apart.

DPJ’s failure has therefore been the discrediting

of opposition parties as a whole.
 Electoral System
In January 1994, the Japanese Diet (Parliament) passed two major political
reform laws,
changing the system used to elect its Lower House (the House of
Representatives)
aimed at cleaning up campaign finance practices.
Old Electoral System New Electoral System
• members of the Lower House were mixed‐member majoritarian (MMM) system
elected by single, non‐transferable
vote (SNTV) from multi‐member districts.
 Coalition Politics
Japan has had coalition governments since 1994, ending the long
period of nearly four decades of single party (Liberal Democratic
Party) majority government.

Parties have not been stable since the end of single-party hegemony
and have gone through several
splits and mergers.

Nor have alliances been stable.

Advantages
1. Enlarges base of support, networks and connections.
2. Provides safety for advocacy efforts and protection for members who may
not be able to take action alone, particularly when operating in a hostile or
difficult environment.
3. Magnifies existing financial and human resources by pooling them
together and by delegating work to others in the coalition.
4. Enhances the credibility and influence of an advocacy campaign.
5. Diversity can strengthen a campaign by broadening perspective and
understanding of the issue. It can also assist outreach by appealing to a
wider population base with differing priorities and interests.
6. Provides peer support, encouragement, motivation and professional
recognition.
The Emperor, Prime Ministers & Cabinets, and the Diet
THE EMPEROR
 head of the Imperial Family
 head of the state
 Ceremonial duties
 appoints the Prime Minister, after being
designated by the National Diet
 Promulgation of amendments to the laws,
cabinet orders and treaties.
 Convocation of the Diet.
 Dissolution of the House of Representatives.
 Proclamation of general elections to the Diet.
 Receiving of foreign ambassadors and
ministers.
Emperor Naruhito  Conferring of honours.
 THE PRIME MINISTER
 head of the government
 Presents bills to the Diet on behalf of the
Cabinet.
 Signs laws and Cabinet orders (along with other
members of the Cabinet).
 Appoints all Cabinet ministers, and can dismiss
them at any time.
 Must report to the Diet upon demand to provide
answers or explanations.
 May advise the Emperor to dissolve the Diet's
House of Representatives.
 Commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense
Forces.
 May override a court injunction against an
Shinzō Abe administrative act upon showing of cause.
THE CABINET
内閣 Naikaku
19 members called Ministers of State (PM
excluded)
collectively responsible to the Diet and must
resign if a motion of no confidence is
adopted by the Diet.
THE JAPANESE DIET (Legislature)
 The National Diet (国会 Kokkai)
 Bicameral legislature
 Upper House: HOUSE OF COUNCILLORS
 Lower House: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 both houses are elected under parallel voting systems.
 House of Councillors
• 参議院 Sangiin
• successor to the pre-war House of Peers
• has 242 members, elected for a six-year term
• must be at least 30 years old
• cannot be dissolved, as only half of its membership is elected
at each election.
• Of the 121 members subject to election each time, 73 are
elected from the 47 prefectural districts (by single non-transferable
vote) and 48 are elected from a nationwide list by proportional
representation with open lists.
 House of Representatives
• 衆議院 Shūgiin
• must be at least 25 years old
• has 465 members, elected for a four-year term
• Of these, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member
constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation, and
289 are elected from single-member constituencies. 233 seats are
required for a majority.
• overall voting system is a parallel system, a form of semi-proportional
representation.
• can override the decision of the House of Councillors by a two-thirds
vote in the affirmative
• House of Representatives is considered the more powerful house.
• can also be dissolved by the Prime Minister or the passage of a non-
confidence motion
Politics in Japan: Policies and Policymaking
I. How Policies are Made
1. Because the LDP has dominated Japanese politics since the mid-
1950s, policymaking in the party arena takes place almost entirely
w/n the LDP
2. Policymaking in Japan is also heavily influenced by the special place
of the bureaucracy in the power
structure.
3. Bureaucrats in the US and GB generally
implement rather than make policy
(Peter Drucker--1998--blurb on
bureaucracy in Japan)
4. Japanese bureaucrats have several features that make them different
from their US and British counterparts:

1st, the bureaucracy is an efficient and highly respected institution.

• In Japan, the bureaucracy helped it to become a global economic

superpower in the post-WWII era
• It is one of the few countries (along w/France) where being a bureaucrat
is a hi-status occupation, subject to demanding entrance exams. Higher
levels dominated by top grads of the best law schools (especially the
University of Tokyo)
2nd, bureaucrats are government leaders

• they are folks who first run government ministries, then retire
to become corporate execs or sit in the Diet
• This revolving door is common in the US too but it is severely
criticized here. In Japan the practice
is described as amakudari,
or “descent from heaven”
 3rd, more than in any other liberal democracy,
policy decisions are taken out of public view
and are made mostly within government
ministries

• Officially, Diet members can initiate legislation, debate alterns, amend bills, and
pass laws.
• However, Data (see McCormick 2006) indicates that about 90% of all legislation is
crafted outside the diet, in the Ministries
• Generally then, policy is made in Japan through a sort of bargaining process b/n LDP
cabinet ministers and the PM, faction leaders w/n the party, the bureaucracy, and
business and labor leaders.
II. Economic Policy Making in Japan
• Limited Pluralism (Johnson 1959) developed in the sense that different
ministries (esp MITI), the LDP, and business groups all have inputs into
the process and that their input was at times conflictual.

o opposition parties and many mass interest groups are left out of the
process.