POLI/INTL 355, Review 2, Spring 2023

Bill Newmann

The exam has two parts:

• Part 1: Short Answers: Choose 2 of 8: (20 points each; 5-6 sentences): Define the term and tell me why it’s important in the context of Japanese politics.
• Part 2: Essay: Choose 1 of 2: (60 points; roughly 3-4 pages). Each essay has several parts to it. Make sure to do all parts of the essay. There are choices even within the essay, so make sure you read the directions. A part of an essay may say “choose 3 of 5.” Don’t do all five.

List of Terms

Is Japan changing?

Can Japan change?

Themes in Japanese political culture:

1. Homogeneity

*unity

exceptions:

*Koreans in Japan

burakumin

*status of women

2. *uniqueness and isolation

Is Japan an Asian nation?

Never colonized

3. *borrowing

“Japanification”

4. *geography

*relationship of geography to Japanese independence (never experiencing colonialism)

5. *communitarian

rice growing and community

6. *emperor

7. *power behind the scenes

lack of confrontation

Political History:

1. Growth of Feudal Japan

centralization of government

Feudal Japan

*Shogun

*Samurai culture--loyalty, self-sacrifice

*Tokugawa family unifies Japan

2. Tokugawa era:

*unification/centralization of power

*isolation

3. Meiji Restoration

Birth of modern Japan

*A restoration and revolution

*end of isolation

*1853: Commodore Perry and US ultimatum

Effect on Tokugawa rule

1868 – overthrow

*Satsuma and Choshu clans

*Restoration of Emperor

*Nationalism

*Meiji era reforms

*Borrowing

1889 constitution

*Industrialization

Military reforms

*Sino-Japanese War 1894-5

*Russo-Japanese War 1904-5

4. Nationalism and War:

*Nationalists vs. Institutionalists

Manchuria - 1931

*Into the rest of China - 1937

*Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

*Rape of Nanjing

*Hiroshima/Nagasaki

End of WW II

*Gen. Douglas MacArthur (as Emperor of Japan?)

*Punishment

*Demilitarization

*Article 9

*1946 Constitution

*Emperor: Post-war position

Diet

House of Councillors

House of Representatives

Single-member districts (SMD)

Proportional Representation

The magic number

House of Reps power over House of Councillors

Passing legislation

Prime Minister

Electing Prime Ministers (know the PPT slides on this)

New PM without election (resignation of PM)

No-Confidence vote

PM dissolving Diet (Know how this differs from a no-confidence vote)

Cabinet

Ministries

*The power of the bureaucracy and why Japan may be incapable of change

*Business-Government partnership

*Yoshida Doctrine

Administrative Guidance

Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) now METI

*Iron Triangle and how each member plays its part (very important)

*LDP

*Business Community

*Ministries/Bureaucrats

What each part of the Iron Triangle gets from the other parts

*The "1955 System"

*Liberal-Democratic Party

Its platform/ideology

*LDP Factions

*Japan Socialist Party/Social Democratic Party of Japan

Its platform/ideology

One and Half Party system/consensus politics

What that looks like in electoral strength in lower house

Why does the LDP dominate? (know all the reasons)

Iron Triangle

LDP factions

*LDP’s money advantage

*LDP and rural vote: how the House of Representatives was gerrymandered to favor rural vote

*Public Works spending

Opposition weakness

Success of Post-War Japanese economy

Consensus Politics/One and a Half Party System

Can this last forever?

Japan Since 1990

*Success of Japanese Economy

“Japan Inc”

As a model

As a “miracle”

*Collapse of Bubble economy

*Recession beginning in 1990

1. Heisei Revolution

*LDP scandals and PM’s resigning (1989-1993) (know the extent of it, not the details of any scandals)

Political debates of the 1990s

Open up the economy

Japan as a “normal” nation (and Article 9)

Electoral reform bill and hopes it would create two-party system

*1993 No Confidence Motion

1993 election

Fate of LDP in election

Fate of SDPJ in election

*Not-LDP coalition

Defectors from LDP

Allied with SDPJ

Policies of Not-LDP government

*Collapse of Not-LDP coalition/LDP back in power

Results of Heisei Revolution?

*Ozawa Ichiro’s role

2. New 1½ Party System

Center-right, not center-left

*New Frontier Party

*Democratic Party of Japan

3A. Internal Challenges to LDP

Koizumi Junichiro

Reform of LDP rules for choosing LDP leader

Challenging the LDP from within: Election of Koizumi Junichiro

3B. *Administrative Reform

*New powerful Prime Minister

Cabinet Secretariat Changes

Cabinet Office Councils

*Koizumi’s reform plans

*breaking the iron triangle

*Japan Post Office System

*Opponents of reform

*LDP anti-reform faction bosses

*Iron Triangle/Bureaucracy

*Postal reform bill is defeated

*Koizumi calls elections 2005

Postal rebels vs. assassins

*Election results

*Postal reforms passes

*A revolution?

Koizumi retires (limits on LDP President’s term)

LDP back to old ways

*2008-2009 recession

4. Two Party System?

*Election of 2009

*DPJ victory

“Flexicons”

DPJ Policies

*Is it a Two Party system?

DPJ Weakness

*Great East Japan Earthquake

*Fukushima Nuclear Plant

*The damage

*The Government response

5. Return to LDP Rule

Election of 2012 (Big results; not numbers)

*Abe Shinzo

Meaning of LDP return to power

Election of 2014

Election of 2017

Fate of DPJ?

Abe to Suga (2020)

Suga to Kishida (2021)