Politics in Japan is undergoing a major transformation. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has, since 2012, embarked upon an ambitious programme of policy reforms as well as changes to Japan’s governing structures and processes. At the heart of this policy agenda is ‘Abenomics’ – a set of measures designed to boost Japan’s flagging economy, but one which is yet to deliver on its promises. In this fully revised and updated second edition of his classic text, Ian Neary explores the dynamics of democracy in Japan, introducing the key institutions, developments and actors in its politics from the end of the Second World War to the present day. Packed with illustrative material and examples, this comprehensive study traces the continuities and the changes that are underway in five major policy areas: foreign and defence, industry, social welfare, the environment and human rights. Assuming no prior knowledge of Japan, this textbook will be an invaluable and welcome resource for all students interested in the government and politics of contemporary Japan and its international profile.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to the state and politics in Japan at the start of the twenty-first century. In it, Ian Neary asks if the state in Japan is in any important sense different from states in western societies. He seeks to answer this question through an examination of the historical process that created the modern state, a description of the main institutions and actors in contemporary political life and an analysis of four important areas of policy-making. In Japan, as elsewhere in East Asia where the ‘developmental state' has played a key political and economic role, civil society has been the product of, not the precondition to, the development of capitalist society and the modern state. Neary explores the formation of the modern Japanese state and shows that, though it established the foundations of industrial growth, it left little or no room for the formation of groups that make up civil society elsewhere. The book then focuses on the political parties of both left and right, characteristics of the electoral systems and the political and bureaucratic structures at national and local levels. Individual chapters on foreign and defence policy, industrial policy, welfare provision and human rights consider the interaction between state and non-state actors in specific policy contexts. Assuming no prior knowledge of Japan or politics, this textbook will be essential reading for students of political science and international relations as well as anyone seeking an introduction to government in Japan today.

How have shifts in both the international environment and domestic politics affected the trajectory of Japanese foreign policy? Does it still make sense to depict Japan as passive and reactive, or have the country's leaders become strategic and proactive? This book presents a nuanced picture of Japanese foreign policy, emphasizing the ways in which slow, adaptive changes, informed by pragmatic liberalism, have served the national interest.

Religion is resurgent across the globe. In many countries religion is a powerful source of political mobilization, and in some a potent social cleavage. In some religion reinforces the state, in others it provides the space for resistance. This book contains a series of detailed studies examining religion and politics in specific countries or regions. The cases include countries with one dominant religious tradition, and others with two or more competing traditions. They include Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto and Buddhism. They include states where religion and politics are closely linked, and others with at least a low wall of separation between church and state. The cases are organized by the type of religious marketplace, but allow many other comparisons as well. We develop some generalizations from the cases, and hope that they will be a fertile source of theorizing for others.

Japan is one of the most media-saturated societies in the world. The circulations of its "big five" national newspapers dwarf those of any major American newspaper. Its public service broadcasting agency, NHK, is second only to the BBC in size. And it has a full range of commercial television stations, high-brow and low-brow magazines, and a large anti-mainstream media and mini-media. Japanese elites rate the mass media as the most influential group in Japanese society. But what role do they play in political life? Whose interests do the media serve? Are the media mainly servants of the state, or are they watchdogs on behalf of the public? And what effects do the media have on the political beliefs and behavior of ordinary Japanese people? These questions are the focus of this collection of essays by leading political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, and journalists. Japan's unique kisha (press) club system, its powerful media business organizations, the uses of the media by Japan's wily bureaucrats, and the role of the media in everything from political scandals to shaping public opinion, are among the many subjects of this insightful and provocative book.

In Help (Not) Wanted, Michael Strausz offers an original and provocative answer to a question that has long perplexed observers of Japan: Why has Japan's immigration policy remained so restrictive, especially in light of economic, demographic, and international political forces that are pushing Japan to admit more immigrants? Drawing upon insights developed during nearly two years of intensive field research in Japan, Strausz ultimately argues that Japan's immigration policy has remained restrictive for two reasons. First, Japan's labor-intensive businesses have failed to defeat anti-immigration forces within the Japanese state, particularly those in the Ministry of Justice and the Japanese Diet. Second, no influential strain of elite thought in postwar Japan exists to support the idea that significant numbers of foreign nationals have a legitimate claim to residency and citizenship. This book is particularly timely at a moment shaped by Brexit, the election of Trump, and the rise of anti-immigrant political parties and nativist rhetoric across the globe.

Reconstructing the dramatic struggle surrounding the building of the New Tokyo (Narita) International Airport near Sanrizuka, this scrutiny of modern protest politics dispels the myth of corporate Japan's unassailable success, while showing that the problems of the Narita situation are also endemic to other industrialized countries.

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed a rise of populism and decline of public confidence in many of the formal institutions of democracy. This crisis of democracy has stimulated searches for alternative ways of understanding and enacting politics. Against this background, Tessa Morris-Suzuki explores the long history of informal everyday political action in the Japanese context. Despite its seemingly inflexible and monolithic formal political system, Japan has been the site of many fascinating small-scale experiments in 'informal life politics': grassroots do-it-yourself actions which seek not to lobby governments for change, but to change reality directly, from the bottom up. She explores this neglected history by examining an interlinked series of informal life politics experiments extending from the 1910s to the present day.

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.

"Covering the period from the Meiji Restoration to the Abe administration, this book examines what has driven the development of health politics, particularly regarding health insurance policy, of Japan and what role the government and medical professionals have played in the policy development"--