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8/12/2019 Questions on Kabuki Democracy
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Questions on
KabukiDemocracy:
The
JapaneseElectoral
SystemPOS 272.2: Government and Politics of Japan
2 August 2014
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Taisho democracy
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The National Diet
Two Houses:
House of Representatives (
Shgiin)
House of Councillors (Sangiin)
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Which is Japans?
House of Representatives (Shgiin)
480 members, elected for a four-year term.
300 members from single-memberconstituencies
180 members (since 2000 elections, from the
original 200 of the 1993 reforms) from 11
multi-member constituencies via party-listsystem of proportional representation
Minimun age requirement is 25 years old
241 seats are required for majority.
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Which is Japans?
House of Councillors (Sangiin)
242 members with 6-year terms
Minimum age at least 30 years old
Cannot be dissolved
121 members per election cycle:
73 from the 47 prefectural districts (SNTV);
48 from open-list proportional representation
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Which is Japans?
New Japanese Electoral System(Christensen 1996) Hybrid of Plurality and PR systems
Legal Barriers to Smaller Parties a party that won only 3 percent of the vote in [a]
district would win one seat but party would not beeligible to win any PR seats unless it first received 3percent of the total nationwide PR vote
Dual Candidacies and Identical Rankings Redistricting was fixed to avoid gerrymanders
Campaign finance reforms forbidcontributions to individual candidates
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Foreseen Issues (Christensen
1996) Nature of Political Parties: electoral reforms
increase the likelihood that coalitiongovernments will become common partyrealignment that has occurred will makecoalition governments much more common in
Japan (52) Reforms have little effect on money politics
and corruption
Women representation may actually be
stunted by dual-listing Ticket-splitting
Primacy of party organizations: runningindependent more difficult
Issue-based electoral competitions morelikely
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Questions on Party Dynamics
(Curtis 2004) Modern political party ideal does not reflect
real electoral competition: catch all partiesbecomes the norm
It is not the electoral system but rather basicchanges in Japanese society and inJapanese peoples attitudes and values thatare driving changes in voting behavior (7-8).
the problem with a lot of the reforms that areregularly proposed to improve Japanese
politics is that they deny politics itself. In theend, the model of political behavior thatseems to be so popular in Japan is the modelof an idealized bureaucratic state (11).
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Hence, kabuki democracy.
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Major Parties
Party
Diet Representation
Party LeaderRepresentatives
Councillors
Liberal Democratic Party(LDP)Jiy Minshu-t
,
or Jimin-t
295 115ShinzAbe PM Reps.
Democratic Party of Japan(DPJ)Minshu-t("Democratic Party")
57 59BanriKaieda Reps.
Japan Restoration Party(JRP)Nippon Ishin no Kai 53 9
ShintarIshihara Reps.TruHashimoto (Mayor of Osaka)
New Komeito(NKP)Kmeit
("Clean Government", "Fairness" or"Justice Party")
31 20NatsuoYamaguchiCoun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratic_Party_(Japan)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Restoration_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Komeitohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Komeitohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Restoration_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratic_Party_(Japan)8/12/2019 Questions on Kabuki Democracy
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Other parties in the Diet
Party
Diet Representation
Party Leader(s)
Representativ
es
Councillor
s
Your Party(YP)
Minna no T
("Everybody's Party")
18 18Yoshimi Watanabe
Reps.
Japanese Communist Party(JCP)
Nihon Kysan-t
8
11
Kazuo Shii Reps.
People's Life Party(PLP)Seikatsu no T
7
2
IchirOzawa Reps.
Social Democratic Party(SDP)
Shakai Minshu-t
2 3Tadatomo Yoshida
Coun.
Green Wind
Midori no Kaze
2
0
Kuniko Tanioka Coun.
New Party DaichiTrue Democrats
Shint Daichi Shinminshu
1
0
Muneo Suzuki
New Renaissance Party(NRP)
Shint Kaikaku
("New Reform Party")
0 1 Hiroyuki Arai Coun.
Okinawa Socialist Masses Party(OSMP)
Okinawa Shakai Taisht
0 1 Keiko Itokazu Coun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Communist_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Life_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_(Japan)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Windhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_Daichi_%E2%80%93_True_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_Daichi_%E2%80%93_True_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_Daichi_%E2%80%93_True_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Renaissance_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_Social_Mass_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_Social_Mass_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Renaissance_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_Daichi_%E2%80%93_True_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_Daichi_%E2%80%93_True_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_Daichi_%E2%80%93_True_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_Daichi_%E2%80%93_True_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Windhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_(Japan)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Life_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Communist_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Diet_of_Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Party8/12/2019 Questions on Kabuki Democracy
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Is the PM becoming
presidential?
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HoR composition (46th, 2012)
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HoC composition (23rd, 2013)
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Participation was already an
issue.
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The 2012 HoR elections
Reed et. al., 2012: voter turnout declined from a record high (for
the current electoral system) of 69%nationally in 2009 to a record low of 59.3% in
2012 Factors for DPJ loss: incumbentDPJ became enormously unpopular;
turnout declined precipitously, and hurt
the DPJ disproportionatelyafter all, its 2009triumph had required the votes of a lot ofunattached voters;
[s]ince no other party assumed [mantle of non-LDPvote]with the exception of the JRP in the areas
around Osakathe non-LDP vote was scattered,and the LDP reaped the benefits,
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Current Questions
The subsequent majority victory of the LDP-Komeito coalition in the HoC last 2013suggests a Diet firmly in the hands of LDP,fueling claims of continuity & stability. Butdoes policy makeup suggest the same?
Is religious affiliation really a growingmobilizer in party politics (and subsequently,elections)?
What do we say of the rightward swing?
What does it pose for Japanese domesticand international affairs?
Coalition politics is supposedly becomingmore and more normal. How does it play toan increasingly anti-political electorate?
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Activity
Given 50 minutes of researching thecurrent policy proposals and strengths
of all the existing parties in light of
Japans political situation, make anattempt to predict likely electoral
behavior by 2016.
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For further reading
Raymond V. Christensen, The NewJapanese Election System, in Pacific
Affairs, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Spring, 1996),
pp. 49-70.
Gerald Curtis, Japanese Political
Parties: Ideals and Reality, RIETIDiscussion Paper Series 04-E-005.
2004. pp. 1-17.