Table of contentsIntroductionParticulars of the Japanese political systemPolitical reforms of the Heisei era and consequencesConclusionIntroductionDuring the first year of the Heisei era, Japan unraveled its ambitious program of political reforms, supposedly put Japanese democracy on the same footing as major Western countries. In 1989, the PLD declared in its broad outlines of political reform: “We are now ready to show the people our political conscience and our sense of responsibility, by arming ourselves to shed blood and make sacrifices.” What remains today of the ambition of Japanese politicians to reform the country? Although significant changes have occurred since the establishment of democracy in Japan after World War II, the fundamental features of Japanese politics remain intact. Indeed, the LDP's central role in politics is stronger than ever, monetary policy is still rampant, and excessive bureaucracy is preventing Japan from carrying out major reforms. Faced with the decline of young people's interest in politics and national dissatisfaction with economic policies, it is necessary to reflect on the main features of Japanese politics today and how political reforms in the Japan have failed to make substantial changes to Japanese policy. We will begin by analyzing the current state of Japanese politics, its particularities and its comparison with other advanced democracies. We will then take a closer look at the reforms that emerged, mainly after 1989, and their impact on Japanese politics until today. Finally, in this essay, we will attempt to understand to what extent these changes did not achieve their objectives and did not, as the LDP leaders then wished, shake the LDP's hold on Japanese politics. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Peculiarities of the Japanese Political System After 1947, Japan was forced to adopt a democratic parliamentary system under pressure from the United States. Growing from business leaders, the conservative LDP quickly became the major political party in Japan. This brings us to a first characteristic of the Japanese system: one party exercises excessive power compared to the others. Although in the early years of Japanese democracy the socialist-leaning Social Democratic Party held a large number of seats and faced the LDP, the opposition parties have since become more divided. The main opposition party has changed its name several times and is currently known as the People's Democratic Party. However, the multiplicity of small parties makes it difficult for each party to be fairly represented in Parliament, especially in light of the current electoral system. Since support for the PLD weakened after the bubble burst and economic crisis of the late 1980s, it has generally retained power through a coalition of right-wing conservative parties. Despite brief transitions in 1993 and between 2009 and 2012, the PLD always sent its leader as Prime Minister to lead the country. Even in the wake of numerous scandals and unpopular economic policies, support for the LDP has remained strong since 2012 and is unlikely to be challenged in the near future. This highlights the key aspect of Japanese politics: it favors the stability of the ruling party, and changes most often come from prime ministers who change frequently. Indeed, over the last 20 yearsonly 16 different prime ministers have led the country. Therefore, although the LDP is inevitably the ruling political party, multiple factions exist within the party and a wide diversity of people are represented. Rather than a shift from the ruling party to an opposition party, Japanese politics is characterized by a regular transition within the LDP between party factions and its leader. A second key aspect of Japanese politics is its unique voting system which favors single-party dynamics. The most important elections are those for the House of Representatives, since the leader of the political party with the highest participation comes to lead the country. The House of Representatives is made up of 465 members, of which 176 are elected by proportional representation and 289 in single-member constituencies. As it is only semi-proportional, it tends to favor the LDP and its hegemonic position. Although composed of different factions, the LDP's strong hold on Japanese politics has led some scholars to question the fairness of the Japanese political system in representing citizen opinion. Third, Japanese politics suffers from low turnout and declining interest in elections among young people. generation. Indeed, Japanese voters appear disillusioned with politics and only 53.68% turned out to vote for the 2017 general election, the second lowest turnout in Japan's post-war history. One reason for this lack of political participation compared to other advanced democracies could be the lack of real change, as the LDP has almost always won and few are willing to challenge its position. Because older people are much more likely to vote and growing in number, political parties tend to favor them over younger voters. This has created a situation of “silver democracy” that undermines the credibility of Japanese politics. If it remains unchanged, this situation could further weigh on Japanese democracy and its effectiveness. Finally, Japanese politics is dominated by its central bureaucracy. The role of bureaucracy in Japan is important and Japanese elected officials arguably have less power than the established bureaucracy. It is said that “80% of policies come from bureaucrats and 20% from elected leaders of countries”. It dates back to the Meiji era, when aristocrats looked down on commoners and raised the slogan "Revere the bureaucrat, despise the people." Bureaucrats hold discretionary power, authority to authorize and approve, making formal and informal regulations, etc., making them the "third legislative chamber." The strict rules and regulations of Japanese society ensure that their authority is maintained. One might wonder how such a concentration of power and decision-making in the hands of elites can be considered democratic. Furthermore, the LDP has been involved in numerous scandals since the 1990s (Recruit Scandal) which exposed the porous links between the administration, bureaucrats and business leaders. Therefore, we can conclude that the four key features of Japanese politics are ranked in order of importance: a hegemonic political party (LDP) with frequent internal transitions, a semi-proportional voting system favoring one party, a high rate of relatively low participation. rate of participation of the population in politics and finally, an overly powerful bureaucracy. Political reforms in the Heisei era and aftermath Aware of the need to reform politics and avoid dominationof a single party, successive governments have carried out several reforms to cement democracy in Japan. One of the major political reforms adopted in 1994, after years of debate, was the change in the electoral system. The PLD having lost the general elections of 1993, the ruling coalition committed to adopting a new electoral system which would favor an alternation of two parties in place of the hegemony of the PLD, weakened by internal scandals. Voters also hoped the new system would be more effective in fighting corruption. Previously, voters voted to elect one to six representatives for each of 129 constituencies. However, in this system, parties would have to find ways to ensure that each candidate gets a minimum number of votes to be elected, in order to maximize the number of representatives they can send to Parliament. Needless to say, this heavily favored the LDP and led to endemic corruption. The reformed electoral system hoped to correct the previous failures through its two levels: single-member districts (289 seats) and proportional representation (176 seats). In addition, it also reorganized districts that were poorly distributed, as the Japanese population had moved away from rural districts and into urban areas that were underrepresented in the previous electoral system. However, the LDP has since regained power and corruption is still prevalent in Japanese politics. Another transition occurred when the DPJ coalition emerged victorious in the 2009 House of Representatives elections. It was only the second time since World War II that the LDP lost elections (the first in 1993). The DPJ administration promised to fight bureaucratic rule and move the US naval base out of Okinawa, which they also failed to do. Their legislative failure and inability to resolve internal conflicts led to their defeat and the return of the PLD in 2012. The two-party system, which was the goal of the reforms of the 1990s, did not materialize and the PLD has a even tighter hold on Japanese politics. .To solve the problem of money democracy mentioned above and convince the younger generation to get involved in politics, politicians decided to lower the voting age from 20 to 18 years. This measure was first implemented in the 2016 House of Councilors elections and resulted in high turnout among young voters. Despite public opposition, getting more young people involved in politics is essential to maintaining effective democracy in Japan. Nevertheless, the consequences have been disappointing, with youth voter turnout falling during the 2017 general elections and absolutely no impact on the PLD's score. Seen as a political maneuver, the new voting age has proven insufficient to restore young voters' confidence in Japanese politics. At the same time, small parties have begun to proliferate since the 2010s, demonstrating the inability of opposition parties to form a coherent political movement and achieve consensus. on major policies. The proliferation of small parties only served the interests of the PLD, which denounced the lack of preparation of the other parties to run for power. The former ruling DPJ gave birth to two new parties that reveal the inconceivable differences that existed between its members: the Constitutional Party of Japan and Kibou no Tou, led by the charismatic Yuriko Koike. The CDP, Communists and SDP form the peace coalition, while the Koike-led coalition has since collapsed following the general elections in2017. There is therefore no longer one but two major opposition parties: the CDP and the Koike coalition, whose future is uncertain. So far, this change in the configuration of the opposition parties has failed to threaten the ruling party, the PLD, or to convince voters. The final policy change proposed is decentralization. Decentralization has been enthusiastically encouraged since the 1990s in Japan. After the war, Japan exhibited the characteristics of a highly centralized system in which local governments were appointed by the central government and delegated only minor tasks. In a broader context of political reforms in the 1990s, decentralization was thought to go hand in hand with deregulation which gave rise to the Decentralization Promotion Act in 1995. Other laws followed to transfer more powers to local governments and move decisions away from local authorities. central authority in Tokyo (such as over tax revenues, citizen autonomy, etc.). Once again, the results were considered insufficient because they did not contribute to an expansion of the autonomy and independence of local governments. In conclusion, at first glance, there appear to have been many changes in Japanese politics since the first government transition took office in 1993. A reform of the electoral system to introduce proportional representation, two DPJ administrations, lowering the voting age and promoting decentralization have all been carried out over the past twenty-five years. However, the results have been disappointing: the two-party system has failed to develop, the DPJ administration is considered a failure and voters have never been more suspicious of politicians. After taking a closer look at the past few decades of Japanese politics, it becomes clear that the political system as a whole has not radically evolved despite its flaws. We will try to understand why it has not succeeded, despite some successes, and how Japanese policy could overcome these problems. Indeed, the electoral system remains strongly biased. The introduction of a semi-proportional voting system has not had much impact on politics and the PLD still remains in place. The semi-proportional voting system is insufficient to fairly represent the ideas of Japanese citizens. Many have criticized the reform as incomplete and failing to implement fully proportional representation. This flawed political system is all the more evident when we consider the political scandals that continue to plague Japan. In 2018, two major political scandals cast doubt on the trust placed in politicians. These are Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Educational Institution, two operators of educational establishments close to Abe, accused of favoritism by the Prime Minister for the sale of public land and the opening of a new veterinary school. The Prime Minister simply rejected these scandals and refused to acknowledge his responsibility in this affair; which reinforces the serious distrust towards the country's politicians. Far from becoming more transparent, the Abe administration has been accused of insincerity and refusing to confront the dark reality of corruption in Japanese politics. Meanwhile, opposition parties have also faced scandal, with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike implicated in the so-called "Olympics corruption scandal". This practice is so common that the term "monetary policy" has been used to describe Japanese policy. However, the opposition parties remain.