Download or read book Political Leadership in Contemporary Japan written by Terry MacDougall and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Those who do not read Japanese seldom have access to analytic studies of the fascinating and surprisingly diverse world of contemporary Japanese political leadership. This volume constitutes a step toward bringing to the English reader some sense of the norms, beliefs, styles, and modes of exercising power of Japanese political leaders and the organizational and political contexts which are changing leadership role expectations. The second volume in this series concentrates more explicitly on leadership recruitment, although the subject is also addressed here. All of the essays in this volume highlight specific politicians, while attempting to develop analytic categories to understand the broader significance of these types of leaders. Included are the following: a Liberal Democratic Party prime minister and faction leader (Fukuda Takeo) who rose "almost effortlessly" to the pinnacle of power on the basis of an elitist educational and bureaucratic career background and another (Tanaka Kakuei) who took advantage of the chaotic wartime and immediate postwar period to overcome the limitations of his commoner background by developing an entrepreneurial style that makes him even today "the most powerful in Japan"; a younger conservative leader (Kono Yohei) who, with certain others of his generation, found life within the restrictive but predictable career paths of ruling Liberal Democrats less attractive than the risky option of forming his own New Liberal Club; an unconventional Socialist chairman (Asukata Ichio) who bucks the pull toward coalition making among the opposition parties in favor of his belief that this major but perpetual opposition party must first reconstruct itself and structure a new popular consensus that can legitimize a coalitional alternative to the Liberal Democrats; parliamentary leaders (like lower-house speaker Maeo Shigesaburo, directors of the House Management Committee, and heads of the Diet policy committees of the various parties) who are projected into increasingly influential roles by changing electoral trends and popular expectations; an innovative and dynamic mayor (Suzuki Heizaburo) who, taking advantage of the considerable authority afforded by Japan's "presidential" system of local chief executives, pursues his own priorities, mobilizing the requisite support despite the lack of national guidance and the oppositions of former backers; and the "power behind the throne" (Matsunaga Yasuzaemon and Komori Takeshi) whose visions move prime ministers and governors as well as their own followers in powerful public and private bureaucracies. [intro]
Download or read book Looking for Leadership written by Ryo Sahashi and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2015-12-29 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democratic leaders around the world are finding it increasingly difficult to exercise strong leadership and maintain public support. However, there is nowhere that this has proven to be as challenging of a task as Japan, which has seen its top leaders change more often over the past 25 years than any other major country in the world. The current prime minister has strived to put an end to this pattern, but can he buck this historical trend? More fundamentally, why do Japan's prime ministers find it so difficult to project strong leadership, or even stay in office? And what are the ramifications for Japan's partners and for the world? This volume, authored by contributors who straddle the scholarly and policymaking worlds in Japan, explores the obstacles facing Japan as it looks for greater leadership and explains why this matters for the rest of the world.
Download or read book Political Reform in Japan written by Alisa Gaunder and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-04-11 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comparing successful and unsuccessful reform drives by Japanese leaders, Alisa Gaunder argues that the quality of political leadership is the crucial determinant of whether parties in positions of dominance, pass or reject policies.
Download or read book Parties and Politics in Contemporary Japan written by Junnosuke Masumi and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Contemporary Japanese Politics written by Tomohito Shinoda and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tomohito Shinoda tracks slow yet steady changes in the operation of and tensions between Japan's political parties and the public's behavior in Japanese elections, as well as in the government's ability to coordinate diverse policy preferences and respond to political crises.
Download or read book Modern Japanese Leadership written by Bernard S. Silberman and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Leaders and Leadership in Japan written by Ian Neary and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows Japan's group-orientated society may have had fewer so-called 'leaders', but has excelled as a society of king-makers. On the other hand, the way leadership is expressed derives from different values and perceptions of hierarchy.
Download or read book Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan written by Motoshi Suzuki and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2016-03-25 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan illuminates Japan’s contemporary and historical struggle to adjust policy and the institutional architecture of government to an evolving global order. This focused and scholarly study identifies that key to this difficulty is a structural tendency towards central political command, which reduces the country’s capacity to follow a more subtle allocation of authority that ensures political leadership remains robust and non-dictatorial. Thus, Motoshi Suzuki argues that it is essential for a globalizing state to incorporate opposition parties and transgovernmental networks into policy-making processes. Providing an in-depth analysis of the theories of institutional change, this book introduces readers to a wealth of perspectives and counterarguments concerning analysis of political decision-making and policy adjustment on both the national and international scale. Placing Japanese policy reform in the global context and relating policy reform to leadership’s political strategies, the author gives a detailed chronological and analytical overview of Japan’s challenging institutional, political and bureaucratic transformations since the Meiji Restoration of the late nineteenth century. Analysis of globalization and policy reform in a non-liberal state, and the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats from an international perspective is included. For those interested in historical and contemporary Japanese politics from a theoretical perspective, particularly the implications of globalization and the politician–bureaucrat relationship, this is an indispensable resource.
Download or read book The Policy Making Process in Contemporary Japan written by M. Nakano and published by Springer. This book was released on 1996-11-12 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the public policy-making process in contemporary Japan testifying a new dictum: 'The various phases of the policy process cause politics'. The analytical focus is threefold: encompassing the policy-making process on the national level; elections and the policy-making process; and the regional policy and decision-making. These analyses offer a number of original and comparative data on Japanese politics. This book also tries to interpret the basic pattern of Japanese politics, which contributes to a clear understanding of the dynamic aspects of the political process and political economy after the Second World War.
Download or read book The Logic of Japanese Politics written by Gerald L. Curtis and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2000-11-05 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely recognized both in America and Japan for his insider knowledge and penetrating analyses of Japanese politics, Gerald Curtis is the political analyst best positioned to explore the complexities of the Japanese political scene today. Curtis has personally known most of the key players in Japanese politics for more than thirty years, and he draws on their candid comments to provide invaluable and graphic insights into the world of Japanese politics. By relating the behavior of Japanese political leaders to the institutions within which they must operate, Curtis makes sense out of what others have regarded as enigmatic or illogical. He utilizes his skills as a scholar and his knowledge of the inner workings of the Japanese political system to highlight the commonalities of Japanese and Western political practices while at the same time explaining what sets Japan apart. Curtis rejects the notion that cultural distinctiveness and consensus are the defining elements of Japan's political decision making, emphasizing instead the competition among and the profound influence of individuals operating within particular institutional contexts on the development of Japan's politics. The discussions featured here -- as they survey both the detailed events and the broad structures shaping the mercurial Japanese political scene of the 1990s -- draw on extensive conversations with virtually all of the decade's political leaders and focus on the interactions among specific politicians as they struggle for political power. The Logic of Japanese Politics covers such important political developments as • the Liberal Democratic Party's egress from power in 1993, after reigning for nearly four decades, and their crushing defeat in the "voters' revolt" of the 1998 upper-house election; • the formation of the 1993 seven party coalition government led by prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa and its collapse eight months later; • the historic electoral reform of 1994 which replaced the electoral system operative since the adoption of universal manhood suffrage in 1925; and • the decline of machine politics and the rise of the mutohaso -- the floating, nonparty voter. Scrutinizing and interpreting a complex and changing political system, this multi-layered chronicle reveals the dynamics of democracy at work -- Japanese-style. In the process, The Logic of Japanese Politics not only offers a fascinating picture of Japanese politics and politicians but also provides a framework for understanding Japan's attempts to surmount its present problems, and helps readers gain insight into Japan's future.
Download or read book Understanding governance in contemporary Japan written by Masahiro Mogaki and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-11 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the transformation of the Japanese state in response to the challenges of governance by focusing on two case studies: ICT regulation and antimonopoly regulation after the 1980s, which experienced a disjuncture and significant transformation within the period with approaches embracing competition. In so doing, it reveals the transformation of the state and governance in a Japanese context and presents itself as an example of the new governance school addressing the state, its transformation, and the governance of the political arena in Japanese politics and beyond, setting out a challenge to the established body of pluralist and rational choice literature in Japanese politics. With its comprehensive review and analysis of the theory and development of Japan’s contemporary politics, this book is suitable as a textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as a guidebook for practitioners engaging in policies and businesses relating to Japan.
Download or read book The Hatoyama Dynasty written by M. Itoh and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-11-07 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a multi-generational political history of the Hatoyamas, a family that has participated at the highest levels of Japan's parliamentary government from its inception in the late 1800s. The Hatoyama family is one of the most prominent political families in modern Japanese government. It has produced six members of the Diet, Japan's parliament, many of whom have served as cabinet members and party leaders. Due to the family's political legacy, they have often been likened to the Kennedy family in American politics (though they have been spared the tragedy and scandal visited upon the Kennedys). Despite the significance of the Hatoyamas to modern Japanese politics, this is the first comprehensive study available in English. In tracing the rising political fortunes of this family, it is also possible to study the role of hereditary politicians in Japan, the growth and evolution of Japanese political parties, and, perhaps most importantly, the way political leadership functions in Japan, a society known more for consensus-building than strong leaders.
Download or read book Contemporary Japanese Politics written by Tomohito Shinoda and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decentralized policymaking power in Japan had developed under the reign of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), yet in the1990s, institutional changes fundamentally altered Japan's political landscape. Tomohito Shinoda tracks these developments in the operation of and tensions between Japan's political parties and the public's behavior in elections, as well as in the government's ability to coordinate diverse policy preferences and respond to political crises. The selection of Junichiro Koizumi, an anti-mainstream politician, as prime minister in 2001 initiated a power shift to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and ended LDP rule. Shinoda details these events and Prime Minister Koizumi's use of them to practice strong policymaking leadership. He also outlines the institutional initiatives introduced by the DPJ government and their impact on policymaking, illustrating the importance of balanced centralized institutions and bureaucratic support.
Download or read book Party Politics in Japan written by Ronald J. Hrebenar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese political system is a parliamentary democracy and was the first western style government in Asia when the parliamentary system was adopted in the 1880s. It has a multiparty system, free elections, and a parliament that functions much the same way that any other democratic parliament functions, however for much of its existence the Japanese party system has been dominated by one party. This fact is crucial to understanding contemporary politics in Japan, especially since the long term ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is once again back in power. This book presents an up-to-date analysis of the political parties that make up the Japanese party system and their impact on Japanese politics and government. Given that the executive branch is selected as a result of the pattern of party numbers in the parliament, to understand Japanese politics and policy, one must first know the nature of the ruling and opposition parties and their leaders. Indeed, in the past decade the quality of Japan’s government has been closely associated with the strengths and weaknesses of Japan’s prime ministers and the dominant party in the system. This book focuses on a central question: why Japanese politics and government has been so dysfunctional in the past two decades? With this question in mind, the chapters provide key background information on Japanese politics and political parties; discuss each of the major political parties that have governed Japan since 1955; and finally, examine the December 2012 House of Representatives elections that returned the LDP to power, and the differences between the First (1955-1993) and the Second Post War Party Systems (1993- ). Party Politics in Japan provides a comprehensive analysis of the past sixty years of Japanese party politics. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics and Asian politics, as well as to those interested in political parties and political systems more broadly.
Download or read book Contemporary Japan written by Duncan McCargo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan is one of the world's most important societies, yet remains one of the least understood. This book is designed to fill the gap for a concise but thought-provoking introduction to all aspects of the country's political, economic and social life set in a clear historical context. The author's starting-point is that the study of Japan is 'contested territory' where even such apparently simple questions such as 'Who is in charge?' spark considerable disagreement and controversy among experts. To understand contemporary Japan, Duncan McCargo argues, it is necessary to get to grips with a range of different perspectives on Japanese political and social structures. Integrating contrasting perspectives throughout, the core chapters of the book focus on the changing economy, government and politics, society and culture, and Japan's place in the wider world. The new third edition of this popular text has been fully revised and updated throughout to cover key developments such as the historic end of LDP rule in 2009. This accessible and lively book will be essential reading both for students and general readers who want to know more about this important country.
Download or read book Party Politics in Japan written by Ronald J. Hrebenar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese political system is a parliamentary democracy and was the first western style government in Asia when the parliamentary system was adopted in the 1880s. It has a multiparty system, free elections, and a parliament that functions much the same way that any other democratic parliament functions, however for much of its existence the Japanese party system has been dominated by one party. This fact is crucial to understanding contemporary politics in Japan, especially since the long term ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is once again back in power. This book presents an up-to-date analysis of the political parties that make up the Japanese party system and their impact on Japanese politics and government. Given that the executive branch is selected as a result of the pattern of party numbers in the parliament, to understand Japanese politics and policy, one must first know the nature of the ruling and opposition parties and their leaders. Indeed, in the past decade the quality of Japan’s government has been closely associated with the strengths and weaknesses of Japan’s prime ministers and the dominant party in the system. This book focuses on a central question: why Japanese politics and government has been so dysfunctional in the past two decades? With this question in mind, the chapters provide key background information on Japanese politics and political parties; discuss each of the major political parties that have governed Japan since 1955; and finally, examine the December 2012 House of Representatives elections that returned the LDP to power, and the differences between the First (1955-1993) and the Second Post War Party Systems (1993- ). Party Politics in Japan provides a comprehensive analysis of the past sixty years of Japanese party politics. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics and Asian politics, as well as to those interested in political parties and political systems more broadly.
Download or read book Koizumi and Japanese Politics written by Yu Uchiyama and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an empirical and theoretical study of the Koizumi administration, covering such issues as the characteristics of its political style, its domestic and foreign policies, and its larger historical significance. The key questions that guide its approach are: what enabled Koizumi to exercise unusually strong leadership, and what structural transformations of Japanese politics did he achieve? Uchiyama looks at policy-making processes, newly created institutional arenas such as the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, Koizumi’s populist strategy, foreign policy, and neo-liberal convictions to assess the historical significance of his administration and seek out the basis for its wide public support. Finally, the book undertakes a normative evaluation of the merits and demerits of the Koizumi administration’s political style, and compares it with the Abe and Fukuda administrations that came after. This book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in comparative politics, administrative reform, and contemporary Japan.
