Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan

Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan PDF

Author: Motoshi Suzuki

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2016-03-25

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 178254478X

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Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan illuminates Japan’s contemporary and historical struggle to adjust policy and the institutional architecture of government to an evolving global order. This focused and scholarly study identifies that key to this difficulty is a structural tendency towards central political command, which reduces the country’s capacity to follow a more subtle allocation of authority that ensures political leadership remains robust and non-dictatorial. Thus, Motoshi Suzuki argues that it is essential for a globalizing state to incorporate opposition parties and transgovernmental networks into policy-making processes. Providing an in-depth analysis of the theories of institutional change, this book introduces readers to a wealth of perspectives and counterarguments concerning analysis of political decision-making and policy adjustment on both the national and international scale. Placing Japanese policy reform in the global context and relating policy reform to leadership’s political strategies, the author gives a detailed chronological and analytical overview of Japan’s challenging institutional, political and bureaucratic transformations since the Meiji Restoration of the late nineteenth century. Analysis of globalization and policy reform in a non-liberal state, and the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats from an international perspective is included. For those interested in historical and contemporary Japanese politics from a theoretical perspective, particularly the implications of globalization and the politician–bureaucrat relationship, this is an indispensable resource.

Political Reform Reconsidered

Political Reform Reconsidered PDF

Author: Satoshi Machidori

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-03-05

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 9811994331

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This Open Access book provides a comprehensive analysis of political reforms in Japan since the 1990s, emphasizing the role of ideas in shaping their goals and outcomes. For more than fifteen years following the collapse of Japan’s economic bubble, politicians, business people and academics tackled a range of institutional reforms. The sweeping changes they enacted—covering almost all facets of the public sphere, including elections, public administration, courts and the central bank—fundamentally altered Japanese political processes and policies. Taken together, they arguably represent the final touches of Japan’s political modernization, which had been unfolding since the mid-19th century. Throughout the reform process, advocates were inspired by a combination of liberal and modernist ideas. This book examines those guiding concepts and illustrates the often messy process of applying them to real-world institutions. While most reforms began from common goals, they ultimately produced different—and frequently unexpected—institutional outcomes, which continue to shape Japanese politics. By focusing on the relationship between the ideas and processes that shaped Japan’s reforms, this book presents a broad vision of institutional change in comparative politics.

Institutional Change in Japan

Institutional Change in Japan PDF

Author: Magnus Blomström

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-08-21

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1134180578

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This is a new analysis of recent changes in important Japanese institutions. It addresses the origin, development, and recent adaptation of core institutions, including financial institutions, corporate governance, lifetime employment, and the amakudari system. After four decades of rapid economic growth in Japan, the 1990s saw the country enter a prolonged period of economic stagnation. Policy reforms were initially half-hearted, and businesses were slow to restructure as the global economy changed. The lagging economy has been impervious to aggressive fiscal stimulus measures and has been plagued by ongoing price deflation for years. Japan’s struggle has called into question the ability of the country’s economic institutions, originally designed to support factor accumulation and rapid development, to adapt to the new economic environment of the twenty-first century. This book discusses both historical and international comparisons including Meiji Japan, and recent economic and financial reforms in Korea, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and New Zealand, placing the current institutional changes in perspective. The contributors argue that, contrary to conventional wisdom that Japanese institutions have remained relatively rigid, there has been significant institutional change over the last decade.

Global Governance and Japan

Global Governance and Japan PDF

Author: Glenn D. Hook

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-08-07

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1134097204

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Leading specialists from Europe and Japan examine the institutional mechanisms of governance at the global level and provide concrete evidence of the role Japan plays in these institutions. An excellent introduction to the concept of global governance, the volume analyzes how global governance actually works through the global institutional mechanisms of governance. It provides an up-to-date and contemporary analysis of the six most important global institutions, namely: the Group of 7/8 the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development the World Bank the International Monetary Fund the World Trade Organization the United Nations. Written clearly and concisely, the book provides a thorough and accessible discussion on Japan’s role within these institutions and uses supporting case studies to ask whether Japan is reactively or proactively involved in trying to shape these institutions in order to promote its own interests. As such, it will be a valuable resource for undergraduates and scholars with an interest in global governance, Japanese politics and political economy.

Japan's Managed Globalization

Japan's Managed Globalization PDF

Author: Ulrike Schaede

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-27

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1317466888

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As Japan moves from a "catch-up" strategy to a post-developmental stage, it is changing its actions and reactions both in terms of international political economy and domestic policy issues. The current changes in Japan can best be understood as following a path toward "permeable insulation." Japan's government and economic system continue to insulate domestic businesses from full competition and the rigor of market forces, but this insulation is also permeable because a decline in state power vis-a-vis the private sector since the 1990s has combined with a decline in the solidarity of private institutions (such as keiretsu or trade associations) to make strategies of insulation much less rigid and uniform. As a result of the "permeable insulation," Japan's response to the global and domestic challenges of the 1990s is neither one of full acceptance nor rejection of global standards and practices. Instead, the basic scheme is one of pragmatic utilization of new rules and circumstances to continue industrial policies of promotion or protection in a new post-developmental era. By bringing together in-depth case studies of eight critical issue areas, this book looks at Japan's responses to globalization and move toward "permeable insulation." Part 1 introduces the reader to the concept of "permeable insulation" and provides a detailed review of past practices and changes in policy. Part 2 deals with international trade issues, Japan's compliance with and resistance to global trade rules, and the domestic interests visible in Japan's compliance. Part 3 focuses on domestic measures and policies that Japanese firms have used to adapt to the changes, within Japan and abroad, triggered by globalization and liberalization.

Japanese Political Economy Revisited

Japanese Political Economy Revisited PDF

Author: David Chiavacci

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-11-25

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 0429884567

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During the last 30 years, the Japanese political economy system has experienced significant changes that are usually not well understood or analysed because of their complexity and contradictions. This book provides new analyses and insights on the process of evolving Japanese political economy including Japan’s current economic policy known as Abenomics. The first three chapters looks at evolutions at the corporate level, characterised in recent years by increasing firm heterogeneity. The authors apply theoretically driven analyses to the complex subject of corporate governance, human resource management and corporate reporting by discussing new developments in context of their economic opportunities as well as of their institutional contradictions with continuities in Japanese business practices. The second group of chapters deals with institutional changes and evolving economic reforms on the macro level of political economy. The two chapters focus on the financial system regulation and economic growth policies as two central elements of Japan’s political economy and key drivers in the evolution of its economy. Their analysis allows us to better understand the interplay between reforms and change in consumption credit and to reinterpret Abenomics as a manifestation of ongoing contradictions within the Japanese political economy. The chapters were originally published in a special issue in Japan Forum.

Globalization and Decentralization

Globalization and Decentralization PDF

Author: Jong S. Jun

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780878406197

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The twenty contributors and the editors provide new insights into the domestic consequences of global interdependence by examining emerging strategies for dealing with environmental concerns, urban problems, infrastructure investments, financial policies, and human services issues.

Global Change

Global Change PDF

Author: T. Inoguchi

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2001-04-17

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0333985559

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This book examines global change from a dialectical perspective. Looking at global change in terms of unipolarisation in international security, globalisation in the world economy, and democratisation in global governance, the volume provides a refreshingly Japanese angle on addressing complex interplays between the social forces underlying these themes. The book is indispensable reading for undergraduate and graduate students or IR theory, international security, international political economy, and global governance, as well as American and Japanese foreign policy.

Governance for a New Century

Governance for a New Century PDF

Author: Nihon Kokusai Kōryū Sentā

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13:

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Japan and the United States face many similar challenges of governance. Japan in particular is confronted with a serious crisis of governance with profound implications for its ability to deal with the decade-long economic stagnation and the deteriorating public trust in political processes. This book explores the evolving patterns of governance in the two countries as they grapple with the changes wrought by the forces of globalization. Focusing on the volatile period of Japanese politics since the burst of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, the book features chapters on Japanese public opinion, elections, political finance, party politics, policymaking, institutional reform, and the role of the private sector in public affairs. Five Japanese scholars and practitioners write about the efforts under way in Japan to restructure its electoral and governing processes and to cope with its major policy challenges, and five American policy experts respond with insights from American experience. Contributors include Kato Hideki (Japan Initiative), Shiozaki Yasuhisa, (Japanese House of Representatives), Taniguchi Masaki, (University of Tokyo), Yoshida Shin'ichi, (Asahi Shimbun and University of Tokyo), and E. J. Dionne Jr., Paul C. Light, James M. Lindsay, and R. Kent Weaver (Brookings Institution).

Circles of Compensation

Circles of Compensation PDF

Author: Kent E. Calder

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2017-08-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 150360294X

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Japan grew explosively and consistently for more than a century, from the Meiji Restoration until the collapse of the economic bubble in the early 1990s. Since then, it has been unable to restart its economic engine and respond to globalization. How could the same political–economic system produce such strongly contrasting outcomes? This book identifies the crucial variables as classic Japanese forms of socio-political organization: the "circles of compensation." These cooperative groupings of economic, political, and bureaucratic interests dictate corporate and individual responses to such critical issues as investment and innovation; at the micro level, they explain why individuals can be decidedly cautious on their own, yet prone to risk-taking as a collective. Kent E. Calder examines how these circles operate in seven concrete areas, from food supply to consumer electronics, and deals in special detail with the influence of Japan's changing financial system. The result is a comprehensive overview of Japan's circles of compensation as they stand today, and a road map for broadening them in the future.