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Japan's 2013 UN Arms Trade Treaty diplomacy exhibited neither the standard minimalist, subservient negotiating style nor policymaking restricted to the usual actors. Juxtaposition of the treaty and the 2014 arms export policy revision illustrates how traditional "peace diplomacy" can evolve into "proactive pacifism". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservative Liberal Democratic Party won overwhelming victories in the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016 elections in Japan. We discuss whether this reflected a rightward shift in the electorate, by examining how major parties and leaders are identified with particular ideological poles, and citizen-government distance on a range of issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major political corruption scandals were a common occurrence in postwar Japan. After the 1990s, policy failure scandals generated by bureaucratic rather than political corruption became more common. Among the crucial ingredients in generating policy failure scandals was the role of interparty competition and the functioning of a two-party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was all about Abe in 2014. With few intra-party challengers, a divided and weak opposition, and a huge victory in a December snap election gamble, Japan's Prime Minister Abe finds unusual scope to lead the nation both domestically as well as internationally in his chosen course of ''proactive pacifism.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2006, a major drive for reform of the Japanese bureaucracy's personnel system has been continuing in order to enhance political control over bureaucrats. In spite of a bipartisan agreement on the reform's vision, heightened party competition has suspended its actual implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates why the lraq issue did not become decisive enough to topple Japan's LDP-Komeitō coalition government in the November 2003 lower house election, even though the majority of the public opposed the lraq war and the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prime Minister Koizumi succeeded in strengthening the prime minister's role in the LDP's policymaking, although he largely failed to undercut traditional bureaucratic strength. His success resulted not only from personal factors but also the structural changes occurring in LDP politics since the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faction-ridden Japanese politics seems to give way to a new politics. The 1994 revision of the electoral law generated an enormous change in the power relationship between faction leaders and the prime minister. Koizumi Jun'ichiro's strategy exemplified the potentiality of the new politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the Yasukuni problem and reports the different views existing among as well as within major political parties in Japan. The Yasukuni issue should be understood in the context of the rise of conservative nationalism in Japanese politics and Japan's effort to become a normal nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The PRC's larger size, rapid economic development, and greater international assertiveness would seem to give China a clear edge over Japan. Yet, Beijing's frequently heavy-handed diplomacy and steadily rising defense budgets concern many of its neighbors. While most states are publicly deferential to the PRC's wishes, they have quietly taken steps to accommodate Japan as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article clarifies the dynamics of Japan's decision-making process regarding its signing of the Mine Ban Treaty, analyzing the influence of non-governmental organizations on policymakers. It will demonstrate that this case was atypical in the Japanese decision-making process and that NGOs, with the support of domestic and international public opinion, can overcome entrenched bureaucratic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yasukuni Shrine specifically honors the ‘spirits’ of Japanese war dead. Visits by Japanese prime ministers to the shrine have stirred domestic anger and triggered numerous diplomatic disputes. This article focuses on the role of Japanese rightists in the disputes and describes an aspect of identity politics in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Betraying all expectations, Japanese political developments in 2004 show Prime Minister Koizumi's true colors as a reformist leader, willing to use his popularity and an empowered cabinet against the entrenched vested interests of the Liberal Democratic Party while compelling the opposition parties either to converge to his position or become marginalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect that party alliance has on gubernatorial elections in Japan. The results of the analysis reveal that party coalitions backing candidates are not the most important determinant of election victory and that the electorate's choice of candidates differs from the choice of political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addresses the puzzle of why factions have survived political reform in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan's ruling party. Theoretical perspectives on factions; Lineages and development of factions in the LDP; Details on the political reform of 1994; Discussion on the refractive effects and sustained power of factions; Utility of factions for party management; Changes produced by the break up of the Takeshita faction.

Summarizes the issues and events in Japan in the year 2000. Politics and government; Details on economic development; Update on foreign affairs.

Deals with politics and economic conditions of Japan in 1999. Developments in the country credited to Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo of the Liberal Democratic Party; Details on the country's economic stabilization; Foreign relations.

Presents information on a study which discussed Japanese party politics in relation to the October 1999 alliance between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the New Komeito. Conflict between the LDP and the Soka Gakkai; Terms of the LDP-New Komeito alliance; Problems and prospects for the alliance.

Discusses the Japanese politics with regards to the decision of Hatoyama Kunio, a member of Japan's House of Representatives and deputy president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), to run in the April 1999 Tokyo gubernatorial election. Main reason for Kunio's decision to contest the 1999 Tokyo election; National politics and the weaknesses of DPJ; National politics and systemic weaknesses.

Examines the economic and political situation in Japan in 1998. Focus on the need for strong domestic leadership; Results of the July 12, 1998 elections; Commitment of president-elect Obuchi Keizo to reconstruct the economy; Introduction of six legislation designed to solve the banking crisis; Relations with China and South Korea; United States' concern over Japan's economic recession.

Examines how policy-making has transformed under Japan's coalition government since 1993. Policy-making system under the reign of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); Prime Minister Hosokawa Morihiro's formation of the Council of Representatives of Coalition Parties and the Policy Adjustment Council; Policy gaps between the Japan Socialist Policy and the LDP.

Discusses the effect of electoral reforms on political campaign practices in Japan in 1994. How the reform created some contradictory incentives; Summary on the strict regulations that govern Japanese campaign.

Stresses the role played by New Party Sakigake in placing administrative reform in Japan's political agenda. Political events that occurred between the collapse of non-Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); Personal backgrounds of the ten founding members of Sakigake; Details on the cases of administrative reform under the LDP-Social Democratic Party of Japan-Sakigake governments.

Focuses on some of the decision making problems encountered when coalition governments are denominating, focusing on the inefficient foreign policy-making between governments, highlighting Japan. Information on discrepancies between Ministry of Foreign Affairs and United Nations Secretariat; Exerts for a speech by Japan's foreign minister, Kono Yohei, to the general assembly on September 27; Examination of policy coordination in government ministries.

Discusses the politics and government of Japan in 1996. Foreign relations; Domestic issues and controversies; October general election; Turnout rates in lower house elections.

Highlights specific features of informal politics of economic development in contemporary Japan. Data derived from interviews with local politicians and aides to members of Parliament; Consensus among students of Japanese politics on the centrality of pork barrel politics in Japan.

Describes some of the negotiations among potential candidates inside the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Shinshinto (New Frontier Party or NFP) regarding the general elections in Japan. Election under a parallel system; Redrawing of district lines; NFP's nomination problems; Proportional representation nomination process; Weakened image of LDP as the party in power.

Focuses on the role of junior politicians in the transformation of Japanese politics in the 1990s. Demise of the 1955 system dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); Role of insubordination in modern political history; Criticisms directed at the electoral system; LDP reformist groups; Reformers in the opposition parties; Division among politicians on fundamental issues.

Presents four possible future courses that Japan could take after changes in its political framework. Confrontation between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Socialist Party; Collapse of consensus in Japanese foreign policy; Changing environments and Japan's politico-economic system; Conservative course; Normal state course; Civilian power advocacy; Traditional nationalism.

Evaluates sociopolitical developments in Japan in 1994. Package of electoral reforms; End of 38 years of conservative rule; Turbulence of domestic politics; Provisions under election reform legislation; Impact of political reform legislation on policy debate; Changes in the diplomatic front.

Focuses on Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands. Historical background of Okinawa; United States control of the Ryukyu Islands after the Battle of Okinawa; Reversion movement in postwar Okinawa; Okinawa as a prefecture of Japan.

Examines the reasons behind the passage of legislation in Japan that changed the country's electoral system. Electoral reform's association with the fragmentation of the Liberal Democratic Party; Reasons for maintaining the electoral status quo; Strategies in the struggle for electoral reform; Promises and predictions of the reforms.

Discusses the entry of Japanese politics into a new political era. Events leading to the July 1993 election; Political reforms made by the Diet in 1992; Factional schism in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); Results of the July election; Emergence of the non-LDP coalition government; LDP as the new opposition; political changes after the election.

Surveys Japan's performance in both political and economic spheres for the year 1992. Weaknesses in stock and land prices; Tumbling corporate profits; Import competition; Deficit financing; Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin scandal; Electoral reform; Transformation of the political system; Strides towards leadership in the United Nations.

Presents a discussion on the second-generation Diet members and democracy in Japan. A scenario of elite cooperative democracy; Heredity seats; Trends over time; What promotes competition; Question of whether second-generation successors are advantaged.

The article reports on Japan's comprehensive security policy. It states that the dynamic and increasingly interdependent atmosphere in which Japan finds itself necessitates that the military, economic, and diplomatic dimensions of its national security policy address not only Japan's own national security but also those of its regional neighbors. Relative to this, it is posed that the present and future developments in the security situation in East Asia are generally friendly to Japan's present approach to national security.

The article offers information on Japan as the emerging hegemonic power in the world. Social science scholars presents their varying argument on the notion that Japan will dominate the world in terms of economy and politics. An analysis on the definition of hegemony in relation to the capacity of Japan to become a new hegemonic world power is presented, followed by discussion on the factors affecting Japan's ability to become a superpower country. It is mentioned that the policies of Japan concerning politics limits the country to dominate the world politics. Japan is powerful in terms of economy, but the expansion and dominance of the country is limited because of the rise of regional powers including China and India.