With the advent of the second Abe administration, the question of 'who leads' in Japan has become much easier to answer - the Prime Minister and his executive office, backed by a substantial policy support apparatus. This rise of the 'prime ministerial executive' is therefore one of the most important structural changes in Japan's political system in the post-war period. This book explains how the prime ministerial executive operates under the Abe administration and how it is contributing to Abe's unprecedented policymaking authority. It analyses how reform of central government under Prime Ministers Nakasone, Hashimoto and Koizumi has produced the necessary institutional innovations to allow the prime minister to assert a more authoritative policy leadership, turning Japan's traditional, decentralised and bottom-up politics on its head. Comparing the Westminster and presidential systems of governance and applying them to Japan's contemporary politics, the book shows that whilst elements of both can be found, neither captures the essence of the transformation involved in the rise of the prime ministerial executive. Providing a thorough analysis of power in Japanese politics, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese Politics, Comparative Politics and Asian Studies.

The book highlights the main factors behind this rise of the ‘prime ministerial executive’ in Japan, explaining how it operates under the Abe administration and is contributing to Abe’s unprecedented policymaking authority. Providing an analysis of Japanese power politics, it will be useful to students of Japanese Politics and Comparative Politics.

With the advent of the second Abe administration, the question of ‘who leads’ in Japan has become much easier to answer - the Prime Minister and his executive office, backed by a substantial policy support apparatus. This rise of the ‘prime ministerial executive’ is therefore one of the most important structural changes in Japan’s political system in the post-war period. This book explains how the prime ministerial executive operates under the Abe administration and how it is contributing to Abe’s unprecedented policymaking authority. It analyses how reform of central government under Prime Ministers Nakasone, Hashimoto and Koizumi has produced the necessary institutional innovations to allow the prime minister to assert a more authoritative policy leadership, turning Japan’s traditional, decentralised and bottom-up politics on its head. Comparing the Westminster and presidential systems of governance and applying them to Japan’s contemporary politics, the book shows that whilst elements of both can be found, neither captures the essence of the transformation involved in the rise of the prime ministerial executive. Providing a thorough analysis of power in Japanese politics, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese Politics, Comparative Politics and Asian Studies.

Explores the politics and economics of the Abe government and evaluates major policies, such as Abenomics policy reforms.

This book focuses on Prime Minister Abe’s policy toward international peace and security proposed in 2013 under the basic principle of ‘proactive contribution to peace’. To this end, this book investigates Prime Minister Abe’s policy-making process of the Peace and Security Legislation, which transformed Japan’s security policy and enabled Japan to exercise the right of ‘collective self-defense’, which used to be ‘unconstitutional’. This book evaluates the implications of the Peace and Security Legislation on three fronts, domestic, bilateral, and international, by analyzing Japan’s Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) program, the Japan-US alliance system, and Japan’s policy on international peacekeeping operations in South Sudan. This book is one of the first contributions to the research on Japan’s foreign and security policy under the Shinzo Abe administration and will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, and students of Japan, Japanese politics and international relations of the Asia-Pacific region.

Shinzo Abe entered politics burdened by high expectations: that he would change Japan. In 2007, seemingly overwhelmed, he resigned after only a year as prime minister. Yet, following five years of reinvention, he masterfully regained the premiership in 2012, and now dominates Japanese democracy as no leader has done before. Abe has inspired fierce loyalty among his followers, cowing Japan's left with his ambitious economic program and support for the security and armed forces. He has staked a leadership role for Japan in a region being rapidly transformed by the rise of China and India, while carefully preserving an ironclad relationship with Trump's America. The Iconoclast tells the story of Abe's meteoric rise and stunning fall, his remarkable comeback, and his unlikely emergence as a global statesman laying the groundwork for Japan's survival in a turbulent century.

The book offers a study of a fascinating political personality, that of Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzôō (2012-2020). Abe's political career was boosted by his predecessor Koizumi Jun.ichirōô and he seemed extremely promising at 51 when he rose to become the youngest Cabinet Secretariat chief, however once in power in 2007 he disappointed by resigning after only one year. Yet, he rose again in 2012 to become the longest-serving prime minister of Japan's history since the end of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), when Japan went through a radical process of modernisation and westernisation, becoming a major military and imperialist power in the process. The book seeks to answer three questions. How could Abe Shinzô remain in power for nearly a decade in a country where prime ministers usually have much shorter terms, in some cases of only one year? He remained in power in spite of the fact that he sought to conduct massive reforms. What was the policy mix devised to keep voters happy, while promoting structural reforms and growth? He was in power for almost ten years. What is his legacy: what remains of his tenure as chief executive?

This book analyses prime ministerial leadership in Britain and Japan since 1980. Exploring the interplay between personal skill, institutional resources and situational context in explaining the varying power and agency of different British and Japanese leaders, it asks whether the skills, strategies and circumstances needed for effective leadership are converging across liberal democracies. Comparing Britain and Japan reveals leadership trends that might otherwise go unobserved. The book addresses questions important to aspiring politicians as well as scholars, including: What accounts for the short tenure of most Japanese prime ministers? Does comparison with Japan explain the rapid turnover in British prime ministers since 2016? How is the influence of party factions on prime ministerial power evolving in Japan? Are British political parties more factional than commonly acknowledged? And how do changes in media technology affect leadership opportunities and constraints? The book draws on the author’s experience as a political researcher in both the British and Japanese parliaments and on interviews with over 40 politicians and political journalists working in both countries.

This book focuses on the lives and peace philosophy of Japanese prime ministers from 1945 to the present, attempting to extract one consistent political philosophy, namely, the ‘peace philosophy’ that has consistently influenced Japan’s foreign and defense policy. Exploring the meta-narrative of international relations and politics, this book provides a new meta-analysis of the factors underpinning Japanese politics, providing a timely insight into one of Asia's most powerful yet enigmatic players in a time of transformation. This book will interest scholars of international relations, those watching Asia in transition, and journalists.

Political executives have been at the centre of public and scholarly attention long before the inception of modern political science. In the contemporary world, political executives have come to dominate the political stage in many democratic and autocratic regimes. The Oxford Handbook of Political Executives marks the definitive reference work in this field. Edited and written by a team of word-class scholars, it combines substantive stocktaking with setting new agendas for the next generation of political executive research.