Abstract
In this chapter we look at how politics evolves through influence relationships — particularly through the political procedures and mediation used in the policy-making process by the chain of main protagonists, parties, politicians and officials. We take as our example the legislative process surrounding the 1985 pensions system reform: the aim is to examine the dynamics of the reform process on the micro-level, and neither the details of the reform itself nor its legal rights and wrongs are at issue.
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Notes
Soneda Ikuo, Ozaki Shigeki, Katō Takeji, ‘ Dai yonkai Kōsei Nenkin Hoken no Ayumi o Kataru’ [The fourth discussion on the history of welfare pension insurance], Kikan Nenkin to Koyō [Pensions and Employment Quarterly] Vol. 6, No. 1; Soneda Ikuo, Watashi no Nenkin Shi [The story of my pension] (1985); and personal interviews with the latter.
Sakamoto Shigeo, Shakai Hoshō to Jinken: Nenkin, lryō no Saihen to Seizonken [Social insurance and human rights — Reform of pensions and healthcare and the right to a livelihood], Keisō Shobō 1987, p. 80; Soneda, Watashi no Nenkin Shi (ibid.).
For more detail, see Nenkin Seido Kenkyūkai [pensions system research group], Atarashō Nenkin Seido: Kokumin Nenkin, Kōsei Nenkin Hoken no subete [The new pensions system: all about National Pension and Welfare Pension Insurance] (Zeimu Keiri Kyōkai, 1986).
Personal interview with Arima Motoharu, then chairman of the Lower House Social and Labour Affairs Committee, on 11 June 1987. Arima Motoharu, Kenpo Kokkai Namitakashi — Umi no Otokotachi no Gunzō [Health insurance in the Diet — the men behind the struggle] (Shun’endō Shoten, 1984).
MHW Pensions Bureau, Survey of opinion formers on pensions in the 21st century 1983.
Sone Yasunori Research Group, Shingikai no Kiso Kenkyū: Kinō, Taiyō nit-suite no Kenkyū [A basic study of Consultative Councils — an analysis of functions and style] (1985), pp. 32–44.
Tawara Sōichirō, Shin Nihon no Kanryō: Nihon Daikaizō [The new Japanese bureaucracy: major reform of Japan], Bungei Shunju (1986), pp. 304–13.
JSP Joint Committee on Pension Reform and Social Security Policy Committee, ‘Shakaitō no Nenkin Kaikaku Kōsō (Saishūan)’ [Socialist Party Plan for Pension Reform (Final Draft)] (29 October 1984 ).
JSP Policy Commission, Joint Committee on Pension Reform, the Social Security Policy Committee and the Social and Labour Affairs Subcommittee, Seifu no Kokumin Nenkin tō Kaisei Hōan ni taisuru Shakaitō no Shūsei Hōshin [JSP amendments to the government’s national pension reform bill] (11 December 1984);
Tagaya Shinnen and Ōhara Tōru, Watashitachi no Nenkin [Our pensions], (Nihon Shakaitō Chūō Honōu Kikanshi Kyoku [JSP Central Headquarters Party Publications Bureau], 1983 ).
KōmeitōSummer Term Teaching Materials, Kōreika Shakai to Atarashō Nenkin Seido: Kaisetsu to Shuchō [The Aging Society and a New Pensions System: an explanation and an advocacy] (1985). On the subject of Kōmeitō public pension policy and Diet strategy, information comes from interviews with lōraishi Masatarō, Kōmeitō social and labour affairs zoku member and director of the 101st Diet Lower House SLAC, and Policy Committee Secretariat deputy chief Suzuki Masaru (17 July 1987); also party materials supplied by them.
DSP, Seisaku to Tōron [Policy and Debate] (Seisakuhen), special extended issue (January 1987) pp. 44–49 and Minshatō Seisaku Handobukku [DSP Policy Handbook], pp. 347–51. For the LDP’s own appraisal of pension reform, ‘Dai Hyaku Ni Kokkai no Seika Gaiyō’ [Summary of the outcome of the 102nd Diet], Gekkan Jiyū Minsluu [Liberal Democrat Monthly] no. 365.
Information on JCP public pension policy and Diet strategy comes from an interview with one JCP Central Committee member (17 July 1987) and JCP Central Committee, Dō naru? Nenkin: Nenkin Kaiaku to Nihon Kyōsantō no Kenkai [Pensions — what now? Pension retrogression and the Japan Communist Party’s opinion] (JCP Central Committee Publishing Office, 1985).
On the general debate about politician-bureaucrat relationships, see J.D. Aberbach, R.D. Putnam, and B.A. Rocktnan, Bureaucrats and Politicians in Western Democracies (Harvard University Press, 1981), although this naturally cannot provide a complete model for Japanese politician-official relationships.
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© 1997 Minoru Nakano
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Nakano, M. (1997). The Political Process of Welfare Policy Formation: The 1985 Public Pensions System Reform. In: The Policy-Making Process in Contemporary Japan. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375512_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375512_2
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