Political Auxiliaries

Abstract

Japan’s policy-making regime has developed from the bureaucratic-led corporation of the 1950s to the present neo-corporatism. Although elements of the bureaucracy, LDP, and corporate world continue to dominate every policy area, the number of actors shaping many policies has not only multiplied both between and within the legs of the ruling triad, but traditional outsiders like the opposition parties and labor are increasingly allowed to participate. This is a natural evolution: as Japan’s economy grew more complex and differentiated, the arenas in which conflicts over policy take place and the number of actors in them had correspondingly to expand.