CHARACTERISTICS

OF JAPANESE
POLITICS
Dr. Machya A. Dewi, M.Si.
Machdewi@yahoo.com

Constitution

Enacted on 3 May, 1947.

Parliamentary system of government.
Guarantees fundamental rights.
The emperor is "the symbol of the State and of the
unity of the people, exercises a ceremonial role
without the possession of sovereignty
Article 9: renunciation of the right to wage war.

Parliament/Diet

Highest organ of state power (article 41)

Bicameral legislature.
Composed of a lower house (House of
Representative) and an upper house (House of
Councillors).
Directly elected under a parallel voting system.
Passing laws, selecting prime minister, approval
national budget, ratification of treaties.
The HoR can be dissolved by Prime Minister, the
HoC cannot be dissolved.

Composition of Diet

House of Representatives: 480 members, 300 are

elected from single seat constituencies under the Single
Member Plurality ("First-past-the-post") system, and 180
are elected from eleven separate electoral blocs under
the party list system of proportional representation (PR).
House of Councillors: Of 242 members, 146 are
elected from 47 prefectural constituencies by means of
the Single Non-Transferable Vote. The remaining 96 are
elected by open list PR from a single national list.

House of
Representatives

DPJ/Club of Independents (306)

LDP (118)
Kmeit (21)
JCP (9)
SDP/Shimin Reng (6)
YP (5)
PNP/NPN (4)
SPJ (2)
former "Hiranuma group" (2)
Independents (6)
Vacant (1)

House of
Councillors

DPJ/Shinryokufkai (106)
LDP(83)
Kmeit (19)
YP (11)
JCP (6)
SPJ/NRP (5)
SDP (4)
PNP (3)
independents (5)

Cabinet

Consist of Prime Minister and Ministers of state.

Prime Minister (must be civilian) is chosen by Diet.
Cabinet members (must be civilian) are nominated
by Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister has the power to appoint and
remove ministers (majority must be Diet members).
Collectively the cabinet is responsible to the Diet.
The House of Representative can dissolve the
cabinet by no confidence motion.

Recent Prime Ministers

Morihiro Hosokawa (July 1993), new parties

coalition.
Tsutomo Hata (April 1994).
Tomiichi Murayama (June 1994), coalition of JSP,
LDP & Sakigake.
Ryutaro Hashimoto (January 1996).
Keizo Obuchi (July 1998), LDP, Liberal Party & New
Komeito.
Yoshiro Mori (April 2000), LDP, New Komeito, New
Conservative Party.
Junichiro Koizumi (April 2001).

Recent

Junichiro Koizumi (October 2003).

Shinzo Abe (September 2006).
Yasuo Fukuda (September 2007).
Taro Aso (September 2008).
Yukio Hatoyama (September 2009), DPJ.
Naoto Kan (June 2010).
Yoshihiko Noda (August 2011 as 95th PM).

Political Parties

Major Parties:
- Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)
- Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Third Parties
- New Komeito
- Communist Party
- Social Democratic Party
- Peoples New Party
- Your Party
- Sunrise Party
- New Renaissance Party

Democratic Party of Japan

Japans largest Party.

Formed in the late 1990s.
Merger of several anti-LDP parties.
Board spectrum of membership, but
perceived as center-left party.
Diet representation:
- HoR : 306.
- HoC : 106.

Liberal Democratic Party

Second Largest political party.

Formed in 1955 as a merger of 2 parties: Liberal
Party of Japan and Democrat Party of Japan.
Conservative party.
Made up of various conservative and centrist
factions.
Had been in power since 1955-2009.
Diet Representation
HoR : 118
HoC : 83

QUESTION
If you take a closer look at the political
succession in Japans politics, then you will
find out that Japanese Prime Ministers used
to govern in a relatively short period. Give
your opinion on how it may affect Japans
foreign policy in general!