Japan

1. Japan

3. Why study Japan? • Japan is not. . . • Small • Land mass 1/3 greater than GB • Economy is third to US and China • http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/world_economies_gdp/ • Defenseless • Article 9 – renounces war • http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1950_usjapan.htm • Self-Defense Force • http://www.globalfirepower.com/ • http://www.mod.go.jp/gsdf/english/roles/index.html • Unique

4. Geographic and Demographic • About 7000 islands- but 4 main islands • About 70% of land is mountainous • About 11% of the land is arable • 80%+ live in urban areas (Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya) • Densely populated (top 20- 870 per sq. mile) • http://www.newgeography.com/content/002808-world-urban-areas-population-and-density-a-2012-update

6. For an insular nation they have pulled much from their neighbors and the West • Sakoku– xenophobic isolation for 200+ years before western imperialists

7. Themes in Japanese history • Outside influence or foreign pressure • Adopt and adapt – has allowed them to change but stay the same • Persistent division of labor has preserved autonomy and political capacity • Bureaucratic leadership has guided the state and its economic development

8. Pre-modern Japan • By 7th Century the Tang Dynasty was influencing Japan • Buddhism, Confucianism, Chinese written language • Political reforms – administrative system of the imperial state • Redistribution of land to tax • Hereditary, self-perpetuating ruling elite is formed (with tax immunity) • For the next 400 yrs. they took power away from the central govt. • These territorial nobles or lords were called Daimyo • They governed lands and controlled peasants • Rise of the Samurai

9. Power was eventually transferred to the military aristocracy and the clans began to fight for control • But at each stage the leading clans wanted to hold onto the emperor (as a symbol) • The emperor would anoint the strongest among them - Shogun

10. Tokugawa Shogunate • End of the 16th century through late 1800s • Power within this society was based on the daimyos ability to control the land, peasants, and provide samurai • When relative peace was created the samurai were converted to civil servants (highly skilled bureaucrats) • This was an hereditary society and rigidly hierarchical – no movement between classes • Samurai • Peasants • Artisans • Craftsmen • Merchants – not valued individually, but for how they allowed the samurai to live

11. 1853 – Commodore Matthew Perry and the beginning of “unfair” Western influence • He encountered a stable society, but one ready for change • Ruling class had status, but was in debt • Merchant class had no status, but was wealthy • Perry’s appearance changed Japan • Regional daimyo did not appreciate the new rules, but had to accept them • They revolted from the top (change cloaked in traditional trappings)

12. Meiji Restoration • First priority – “rich country, strong military” • Dismantled the feudal state, deposed the shogun, and created centralized political units • They destroyed their own class • Set up a imperial constitution (modelled after Germany) • Bicameral parliament • Emperor-centered Shintoism

13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN-XEH6Gbkc

14. Combining the traditional legitimacy of the emperor with the rational-legal legitimacy of the new changes • Bureaucracy • Civil service open to all, but staffed by former samurai • Zaibatsu • Huge industrial conglomerates (no time to wait for an entrepreneurial class); these were financial cliques like cartels • Important tie between big business and state • http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/zaibatsu.htm • Military • Imperialistic path

15. By the end of WWI, many of the “unfair treaties” had been renegotiated • Defeated China (1894-95) • Defeated Russia (1904-05) • Acquired colonies in Taiwan and Korea • WWI’s opportunity • Used this war to take German holdings in China • Invade China • Recognition from the West • Revolution in Russia helped as well • Military begins to act independently of the civil government

18. Taisho Democracy(1918-31) • Coincides with Wilsonian Democracy • It is the demand for • Middle class rights • Rights of laborers • Reasonable taxation • Some successes during this time period • Commoner elected to Prime Minister (assassinated) • Universal male suffrage • Political parties • Power shifted to the Diet, but there was constant instability

19. Throughout this period • Foreign Policy • Four-Power Treaty, Washington Naval Conference, Nine-Power Treaty, and Japan in the Big Five of the League of Nations

20. Militaristic Era • Global depression and protectionism of the 1930s create a weakened economy • Rising Nationalist and Fascist elements help contribute to political polarization • “Government by assassination”

21. Taisho Democracy ends with the seizure of Manchuria in 1931 • This created a situation very similar to the fascist states in Europe • Pluralism reigned in • Autonomous groups were restricted • Expansionist policies shrouded in emperor-based ideology • Japanese Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere

22. Political Regime • 1947 Constitution – rights and liberties similar to the U.S. • Active political parties in opposition to the main dominant party – Socialist and Communist • Despite this fact, Japan’s democracy may be dysfunctional • Completely controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party • Policy is handed down by nonelected officials (career civil servants)

23. Political Institutions • American imprint and the transfer of sovereignty from the emperor to the Japanese people • Emperor is just a symbol of the state and of the unity of the people • Universal suffrage, parliamentary legislature in which the cabinet is responsible to the Diet, independent judiciary, and a greater level of local autonomy

24. Head of State • Technically the emperor is just a symbol of the Japanese state • Performs purely formal tasks • Appointing the prime minister (elected by the Diet) • Appointing the chief justice of the Supreme Court (designated by the govt.) • Hereditary and patrilineal (no female heir permitted) • Being debated, but not sure if they have solved it yet • Outside of this, the royal family is not scandalous

25. Prime Minister and Cabinet • PM is head of govt. (comes from the lower house and almost always the party leader) • Draws from the Diet to create the Cabinet (17) • PM’s are usually more concerned with factional issues, personal connections and back-room bargaining • Experienced and savvy politicians – less policy expertise and serve shorter terms

26. Cabinet introduces most all legislation • Really it begins with the bureaucracy and the expert “advisory councils” • Then to party policy committees • Then to senior leaders • Then back to the Cabinet

27. Legislature • House of Representatives • 480 to a four-year term • 300 chosen in SMD with FPP • 180 chosen from MMD (apportioned) from 11 districts – seats are assigned according to the party’s share of the total blocwide vote • Can be dissolved and can be a vote of no confidence • Only lower house can force the resignation of the government • Convenes about 80 days a year • Standing committees are what is important • House of Councillors • 242 to six-year term (1/2 elected every 3 years) • 146 chosen from 47 prefectures (Single Non-transferrable vote) • 96 chosen nationally from party lists • Cannot be dissolved

28. Bureaucracy and the Iron Triangle • Ministers are not policy experts – that goes to the vice ministers and the career civil servants • 1. non-elected individuals have long had influence in Japanese society • 2. U.S. left those individuals in place after WWII • 3. Political vacuum after the war pushed them into leadership roles • 4. meritocratic nature of hiring and advancement – highly competitive entrance exams (2% pass) • “Descent from heaven” – dismissed bureaucrats trying to get into politics

29. Judicial System • Very independent in structure, but the LDP has used its political dominance through appointment powers to control who is one it • The Japanese system is unitary – civil, criminal, and administrative matters under one hierarchy • The Supreme Court is at the top • 15 members appointed by the cabinet • Each is subject to a “people’s review” in the first House elections after appointment by the Cabinet • After that it is every 10 years

30. Japan

31. Ethnic and national identity • View themselves as racially and ethnically homogeneous • Immigrants only 1% of the population • However, those of “foreign ancestry” constitute 5% of population • The notion of a racially pure and monoethnic Japan was fostered by the Japanese state during the Meiji period onward • Sought to form a unified nation • Establish racial superiority

32. Ethnic and National identity • Prevent minority groups from developing a Japanese identity and enjoying the full privileges of citizenship as citizens with a separate ethnic heritage • Indigenous Ainu (north) and Okinawans (south); descendants of Koreans, Chinese, and Southeast Asians; and children of mixed ancestry and foreigners • 2 million burakumin (social outcasts), whose ancestors worked in “unclean” occupations, are also seen as a minority group and have faced intense prejudice

33. Naturalization process • Being born in Japan does not automatically mean citizenship or voting rights • Non-Japanese become citizens only after adopting a Japanese name and a series of interviews that include home visits and consultation with neighbors (to ensure full assimilation into Japanese culture) • Permanent residents who do not choose citizenship are fingerprinted and required to carry alien-registration identification

34. Ethnic and National identity • Economic necessity may bring about social integration • Aging population and decreasing fertility is shrinking the workforce • The Japanese will have to put aside its racist and sexist ways and integrate women and immigrants into the workforce to regain its recent economic losses

35. Ideology and political culture • Early Western social scientists argued that Confucian beliefs hampered entrepreneurial initiative and individual freedom in (East) Asia • More recently, scholars argue that Confucianism aided in Japan’s and other East Asian nations’ postwar economic growth and peaceful democratic transition. • And even more recently, “Asian values” are now blamed for crony capitalism, nepotism, and inefficient government intervention which caused the economic crises in the 1990’s

36. Ideology and political culture • Japan has used “cultural values” as an excuse for otherwise illegal trade barrier • American skis, western food, California rice • So-called Japanese cultural values have been invented by elites as a form of “cultural engineering.” • Confucian diligence to reduce leisure time and increase production • National patriotism and emperor worship

37. Ideology and political culture • Basic unit of Japanese society is the group rather than the individual • Family, company, political faction, and nation • Defer to the needs of the group and make decisions through consensus rather than majority vote • Hierarchy governs social relations • Inferior yields to superior’s authority; superior obliged to care for their subordinates’ needs • Advancement in firms, bureaucratic ministries, and LDP factions based on seniority and less on merit

38. Ideology and political culture • Japan has a remarkably equitable distribution of wealth despite hierarchical culture, a weak labor movement, and a conservative government • Due in part to: • WWII, which reduced all Japanese society to poverty • Postwar occupation reforms: land reform, breakup of zaibatsu conglomerates, purges of institutional elites, and empowerment of labor unions • Rapid and sustained postwar economic growth

39. Ideology and political culture • Because there is no need for economic equality reform, most of Japan is conservative and government is dominated by the LDP • Current economic malaise may lead to greater diversity in political attitudes and ideologies • Fading of guaranteed permanent employment for white-collar sarariman (salaryman) and rising unemployment among college students have led to calls for change

40. POLITICAL ECONOMY • “Rich country, strong military”: strong relationship between economic development and industrialization and military and political power • Mercantilist • After WWII, this helped to propel Japan from a country destroyed by war to the second largest economy in the world

41. Capitalist developmental state • Developmental: top priority has been economic development not regulation, welfare, or revolution • Capitalist: based on private property and profit-motivated private firms participating in highly competitive local and global markets • State has guided the private market

42. Industrial policy • Formulated and implemented by elite economic bureaucracy, after consultation and coordination with private sector • Protective tariffs and nontariff barriers on imports • Encouraging cooperation and limiting “excessive” competition in strategic export sectors • Low-interest loans and tax-breaks to firms investing in targeted industries

43. Government Guidance • Professionally managed keiretsu conglomerates replace zaibutsu • Workers agree to forgo labor strikes in exchange for permanent employment • Bureaucrats rely upon informal directives (administrative guidance) and subtle incentives for the internationalized Japanese economy

44. Economic growth • 1950’s and 60’s: 10% growth per year • 70’s and 80’s: 5% growth per year • Automotive and electronic companies • 1980’s: cost of doing business in Japan is mounting due to international competition • Government assistance to help companies led to waste, overcapacity, and overpricing • Overvaluation of stocks in late 80’s early 90’s • Asset bubble bursts in 1992 • “Zombie” firms---dead but propped up by banks and the political system

45. Foreign Affairs and the World • Japan borrows from foreign elements  • Japan has a hierarchical perception of the world  • Very strong and and sharply delineated sense of nationalism--makes citizens highly responsive to calls for sacrifice  • Those advocating change are calling for gaiatsu (foreign pressure) or a "third opening" as impetus for change

46. Japan and Asia • Asia has felt most acutely cost and benefit of Japanese military, economic, and cultural expansion--oppressive colonial rule, imperial exploitation, and military destruction but also economic infrastructure, technology and training, and developmental capitalism • Has taken the lead among Asian nations in trade, technology, and investment capital

47. Japan and the west • Economic and military dependence on America since WWII • More recently, Japan has become an economic competitor. The US and Europe have engaged in trade wars with Japan and have increased their demands that Japan end it's economic protectionism • Critics call for Japan to become a "normal" country--liberalization of economy and society, opening boarders to trade, investments, immigrants, and students,  and militarization. 

48. Security and Political Role • Art 9-- prohibits use or threat of war However Japan still has defense • Self-Defense Force of 240,000 personnel and annual military budget of US$50 billion (4th in the world) • Sentiment since WWII has been pacifist, but rising tension of the Korean Peninsula and growing capacity of China's military have shifted public opinion US and other countries pressuring Japan to bear more of the burden of it's own defense and participate in regional and global peacekeeping operations • Most Japanese still highly wary of militarism --need not be a military power to be a global power 

49. Current issues • Aging Population • By midcentury demographers predict that Japan will have over 35% of the population over 66, 1 million centenarians, 30 percent fewer people overall, and 1 million more people will die each year than are born. 

50. Current issues • Declining Workforce • Peaked in 1998 • Needs to integrate women and and immigrants  • 2003-ranked 69/72 in terms of female empowerment  • Only long term hope is to increase and sustain immigration over many years