Suchergebnisse

This Handbook focuses on Japan's public administration and bureaucracy at its national level, and the effects of national politics on administrative decision-making and outcomes. It also provides in-depth analysis and description of the Japanese politics–civil service relationship. As the Japanese government is relatively centralized, an understanding of its national-level public administration is vital to comprehending the nature of Japanese bureaucracy. This handbook is divided into four parts: the history of Japanese bureaucracy; the bureaucratic system and underlining laws, rules, and regulations; the relationship between politics and the legislative process; and bureaucracy in practice in the 12 major ministries. It will make an important contribution to studies on politics and governance in Japan, and will become essential reading for scholars in both their research and teaching

"This book is an integrated examination of Japanese politics in the first two decades of the 21st century, as viewed from the perspective of "anxiety over governance." By empirically highlighting the social-environmental, political environmental, and sociocultural changes that have underlined the long-term political participation and voting behaviour of Japanese citizens, the book provides deep insight on how modern democracies function and are perceived in post-industrial societies and reveals the specific processes by which Japanese politics have changed. Additionally, the book provides an analysis of the decline in social capital, the shrinking variety of political parties, and the intermingling of Asian values with liberal democratic values. By examining anxiety over governance the chapters explore the links between anxiety and Japanese political behavior, revealing that, despite the high regard for democratic politics, Japanese citizens generally experienced a high level of anxiety and negative evaluation of the government, including countermeasures against COVID-19. Featuring surveys of Japanese political behavior over a period of more than 40 years this book will be valuable reading for students and scholars of Japanese Politics, Political Behavior and Psychology"--

chapter Introduction: underlying causes of political transformations in Japan TRANSLATOR, MARk E. CAPRIO -- chapter 1 The path of contemporary Japanese politics: four stages of development TRANSLATOR, MARk LINCICOME -- chapter 2 The dominance of the bureaucracy TRANSLATOR, AMANdA SEAMAN -- chapter 3 The effectiveness of parliamentary politics TRANSLATOR, ELIzABETH COBBS -- chapter 4 Changing attitudes: public opinion and politics TRANSLATOR, PATTI kAMEyA -- chapter 5 5 Selecting people of influence TRANSLATOR, yOSHIkUNI IgARASHI -- chapter 6 Local politics: the frontier of Japanese politics TRANSLATOR, MICHAEL MOLASky -- chapter 7 Gender and Japanese politics: transformation by women TRANSLATOR, ROBIN LeBLANC -- chapter 8 The gap between politics and economics TRANSLATOR, JOHN SAgERS -- chapter 9 Globalization and national security TRANSLATOR, JOEL CHALLENdER -- chapter 10 Japan's nuclear power politics TRANSLATOR, JOEL CHALLENdER.

Each of the books listed above is concerned in some way with problems of tradition and modernity. The extent to which tradition is still an influential force in Japan; the compatibility and/or incompatibility of tradition and modernity; the present functions of tradition in Japanese society, polity, and economy; and the future prospects for tradition in modern Japan—all these are matters of concern to the authors, and together they may inform present intellectual discussions of traditionalism, modernization, and modernity.

Japan Inc was once used to describe the powerful political and economic system that delivers Japan's transformation to an industrial power. This book is about the breakdown and failure of policy coherence in Japan in the 1990s and how the political economy of Japan has changed in response. The essays in the volume seek to identify where change has occurred, as well as where things have not changed and why. The issue of policymaking transparency is accorded particular attention.The book covers a wide range of Japanese institutions and policy areas, including the political party s

This essay, based on a public lecture, deals with the last Civil Service (CS) Reform in Japan, which had been attempted since the 1990s and was completed in 2014. Bureaucrats enjoyed a "summer" where they actively were engaged in policy-making. But a series of policy failures and scandals revealed in the 1990s were attributed to their excessive autonomy, and centralized personnel control by the prime minister was introduced. However, discourse analysis of the Diet (Parliament) during the period of Reform indicates that there was neither a shared understanding of the meaning of CS impartiality, nor of the values to be borne by the CS. The driving force of the Reform was mainly people's fury. It therefore resulted in relegating bureaucrats to being "lackeys" of the prime minister, ignoring their self-respect. This has given rise to various undesirable consequences. Will the CS see another "spring" in Japan?

This article presents a definitional and historical summary of 'civil society' as a western concept, and then traces how it was used in Japanese political theory and practice. 'Civil society' discourse became a familiar term amongst post-war Japanese historians and social scientists in the period 1945-1970, and thus preceded the recent international proliferation of 'civil society' literature in the 'west' from the 1970s onwards. 'Civil society' discourse was politicised in practice in Japan in the 1950s and 1960s, principally in opposition movements wanting to encourage political participation by ordinary citizens. While some 'cicil society' discourse in Japan was based on an idealisation of 'western' ideas and practice, it is also the case that the individualism and democratisation implied in 'civil society' discourse has been very differently understood in 'western' countries and very unevenly instituted in their political practice. A simple East-West frame makes significant similarities between Japanese ideas and practice and 'western' concepts and politics disappear, and additionally causes significant differences within the 'west' regarding individualism and democratisation to become invisible. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)

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. --

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

Variation in policy‐making is an important analytical issue in public policy analysis, but it has not been extensively discussed in the literature on Japanese politics and political economy. Focusing on the interaction between state and societal actors, this article presents a causal argument to account for variation in Japanese economic policy‐making. It is argued that variation in policy‐making patterns is determined by the strength of a bureaucracy's sanction power and the exclusivity of its jurisdiction. This argument is elaborated through analysis of four related cases of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) policy‐making: the privatization process of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), the regulation of telecommunications after NTT privatization, the promotion of advanced telecommunications, and the reorganization of NTT. The causal framework is also applied to contemporary Ministry of International Trade and Industry economic policy‐making to highlight the argument's preliminary applicability to Japanese policy‐making. This analysis of Japanese policy‐making lays a base for further analysis of variation in policy‐making in general.

Forty years of public management reform in UK central government: promises, promises ... -- Politcal anthropology and civil service reform: prospects and limits -- Just do it differently? Everyday making, Marxism and the struggle against neoliberalism -- Performing new worlds? Policy, politics and creative labour in hard times -- Weathering the perfect storm? Austerity and institutional resilience in local goverment -- Complex causality in improving underperforming schools: a complex adaptive systems approach -- Toward policy coordination: alternatives to hierarchy -- Governing local partnerships: does external steering help local agencies address wicked problems? -- All tools are informational now: how information and persuasion define the tools of government -- The politics of engaged scholarship: impact, relevance and imagination -- Reflections on contemporary debates in policy studies.