Abstract
When Japan faced unprecedented and multi-dimensional challenges as those posed by the recovery from the devastations of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, followed by the subsequent meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, both the leadership style of then prime minister Kan Naoto and the governability of the then ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) were put into question. The main opposition at that time, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), called for the immediate resignation of Kan and the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HR), Shugiin, and maintained that the change of a ruling party by a general election was the only way to restore urgent leadership and governability. Was the indecisiveness in crisis management attributable to qualifications of a particular politician and a lack of experience of the ruling party who had come to power a year and a half before the national disaster? Was it resolved by the replacement of the top leader in power by Abe Shinzo whose LDP swept the general election in December 2012? Or, was the indecisiveness in crisis management more structural in the sense that regardless of who is prime minister, or which party is in government, the same challenges exist? In this chapter, we argue that the continued political immobility of Japan for the last few years was a result of the constitutional crisis caused by a bicameral parliamentary system with a strong upper house.
Earlier versions of this chapter were presented at the 2011 Japan Public Choice Society Annual Conference, Kaetsu University, Tokyo, Japan, July 2, 2011, and the 2012 Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada, March 17, 2012. Financial support from The Japan-Korea Cultural Foundation and the University of Niigata Prefecture is gratefully acknowledged.
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Notes
For the relations between constitutional systems and party organization, see David J. Samuels and Matthew S. Shugart, Presidents, Parties, and Prime Ministers: How the Separation of Powers Affects Party Organization and Behavior (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
See, for examples, Roland Strum, “Divided Government in Germany: The Case of Bundesrat,” Robert Elgie (ed.), Divided Government in Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); Yasui Hiroki, “Doitsu no Bunkatsu Seifu to Rippou Katei” (Divided Government and Legislative Process in Germany), Nenpou Seijigaku: Minsyu Seiji to Seiji Seido (Japanese Political Science Review: Democratic Politics and Political Institutions) (2009-I): 303–321.
Lijphart, Arend, Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), ch.11.
U. Song, Hangug Heonbeob Gaejeongsa (History of Constitutional Revisions in Korea) (Seoul: Jimmundang, 1980), pp. 167–191.
National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, Daehanmingug Gughoe 60-nyeonsa (Sixty Years of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea) (Seoul: National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, 2008), p. 977.
Kang Won-taek, “Je 2 Gonghwagug Naegagje-ui Bul-anjeong-e daehan Jeongchijedojeog Pyeongga (Revisiting the fall of the Second Republic in South Korea: An Institutional Approach),” Hangug Jeongchi-Oegyosa Nonchong (Journal of the Korean Association for Political and Diplomatic History) 30:2 (2009): 5–30.
Harukata Takenaka, Sangiin towa Nani ka: 1947–2010 (A Study on the Upper House in Japan: 1947–2010) (Tokyo: Chuko Sensyo, 2010).
Harukata Takenaka, Syusyou Shihai: Nihon Seiji no Henbou (Prime Minister’s Control: Transformation of Japanese Politics) (Tokyo: Chuko Sinsyo, 2006).
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© 2015 Takashi Inoguchi
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Asaba, Y. (2015). Korean Parliamentary Politics. In: Inoguchi, T. (eds) Japanese and Korean Politics. Asia Today. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137488312_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137488312_9
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