Structure of Government and Policy Making Process in Japan - Essay Example

- Number of Paper Submitted 0 Introduction Japan is basically an island state which is located in the Pacific Ocean in east of Asia. It is called an island state because it is comprised of 3000 islands. It borders other eastern Asia states such as China, North and South Korea, Taiwan and Russia. Japan is at times called the land of the rising sun because its name, Japan, literary means "sun origin". The politics of Japan is one complicated meshwork of institutions and events. The human factor is also involved in the way politics in Japan are practiced. The government is made up of the three main branches of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Of great interest is the process of policy making in the Japanese political environment. It is evident that the elite in society are behind all the policies that get initiated and enacted in Japan. This paper seeks to establish whether or not the policies developed and enacted in Japan are indeed the input of the elite bureaucracy in Japan. 2.0 Structure of Government As intimated earlier, the government is made up of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Generally the government is a parliamentary democratic monarchy. The monarchy together with the Prime Minister forms the executive. The prime Minister heads the government which is also home to a myriad of political parties in its multi-party system. It is imperative to note that the executive part is as such exercised by the government which the prime minister heads. The Emperor of Japan is the overall head of state and as such appoints the prime minister. The prime minister before his appointment by the emperor has to have the designation of a diet and as such should win the confidence of the House of Representatives. The prime minister as earlier mentioned heads the government, heads the cabinet and appoints and disappoints the ministers of state who are largely members of the diet. Apart from the executive, there is the legislature. The legislature is basically made up of parliament which is divided into two i.e. the Diet which is basically the House of Representatives and the lower chamber which is called the House of Councilors. As such, the legislative power is exercised by both the government and the two chambers of parliament. The judiciary on the other hand is quite independent of the other two arms of government i.e. the executive and the legislature. The judiciary deals with all matters to do with the law and is made up of all the courts, the forces and prisons. It fully exercises the judicial powers without sharing these powers with any arm of government and this is why the judiciary is independent. As far as the law is concerned, Japan is simply a constitutional monarchy. The constitutional monarchy orientation in Japan is largely borrowed from the British system and it is also immensely influenced by the European civil law states such as German and France (Martin & Stronach, 1992). This can be illustrated by the 1896 enactment of a civil code similar to the German model by the Japanese government. The code has ever since remained in effect except for the minimal modifications which were effected after the Second World War. It is imperative to note that the statutory law comes from the legislature and the national diet of Japan only acts as the rubber stamp for the emperor's approval. Actually, the current constitution provides for the role of the emperor only to promulgate the legislation passed by the legislature. As such the emperor has no constitutional powers to oppose legislation passed by the legislature. After legislation, it is the work of the judiciary to implement the legislation. The judiciary is made up of three levels of courts where the Supreme Court is at the top of the list followed by other three lower cadres of the courts (Johnson, 2002). The primary part of the Japanese statutory law is basically a collection of laws commonly known as the Six Codes (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2009). 3.0 Policy Making Process As per the thesis statement in the introduction, it is evident that the elite in society are behind all the policies that get initiated and enacted in Japan. The policy making process in Japan immensely conforms to the postwar Japanese patterns. The pattern is basically that of very close alliance of the ruling party, interest groups and the elite. This very close associations of the three groups in the policy making process otherwise makes it extremely difficult to decide who is really responsible for the policies in Japan. However, with a very close look into the process one is amazed to realize that the elite bureaucracy is entirely if not to a larger degree responsible for the Japanese policy making process (Otake, 2000). The human factor in the process can be digested so as to establish the foregoing claim that the elite are responsible for the policy making process. Though the process is not clear at sight digging deeper will reveal this claim. At sight, the invisibility of the process is as a result of the insiders' tendency to guard most of the information concerning g the matter and this makes it almost impossible for an outsider to understand how the process works. The foreigners who chiefly seek to understand the process in a bid to influence it and thus reduce trade problems find it particularly difficult because of the aforementioned tendency by the insiders. Most of the people who make the policy decision in Japan are the elite bureaucracy made up of mainly elite politicians and the elite businessmen. All these elite are basically a very small number of alumni of the top universities in Japan such as the Waseda University, the University of Tokyo and some more (Thayer, 1969). How then does this elite Bureaucracy call the shots as far as the policy making process is concerned Well, the common educational background of this group inculcates a feeling of community. This feeling is enhanced further through the intricate network of marriages between the officials and the elite bureaucracy's families. Furthermore, early retirements enhances this "community". Early retiring elite bureaucrats eventually assume headship of the top public organizations or go into politics. As such, the top network of the elite bureaucracy continues to rule now and the coming generations. The network mentioned above therefore enables the free flow of information and policy ideas mostly in informal environments. The elite bureaucracy is most of the times holed up in informal meetings in posh hotels and restaurants in Tokyo. The tendency of the elite male bureaucrats is most of the time in abscondence of their family roles. They are basically not family men albeit they are married and have children. Abscondence of family roles is evident from the late night restaurant meetings where they often hop from one restaurant to the next in a tight schedule that can last the entire night. These meetings are meant to rehearse policies (in informal meetings). Therefore, most of the elite male bureaucrats give up their private lives for the good of the nation (Matthews, 2003). 3.1 Policy Development Process It is obvious that the formal institution of polices follows the late night informal meetings' findings. These findings are only subjected to formalization process but the content remains that founded in the late night elite bureaucratic meetings. The formalization process is possible through what is commonly called the deliberation councils (shingikai). There are more than 200 such councils which are attached to government ministries. The members of these councils are the elite bureaucrats in different sectors of the economy such as education, business, industry etc. the councils usually thrash out disagreements in its consensus building efforts. It communicates the progress through the private meetings and it is a representation of an advanced process of policy formulation initially initiated by the informal meetings among the elite bureaucrats. Once the minor differences have been thrashed, the policies are than posted in a "language" which is agreeable to all and sundry as far as the elite community is concerned. The question that remains at the end of it all is how powerful are the recommendations of these councils It is indeed true that these councils are legally instituted but they lack the authority to hold the government under obligation to adopt its recommendations. However, most of the time, the recommendations of the council are adopted by the government anyway. Examples of the deliberation councils and their adopted recommendations can be seen from the past Provisional Commission for Administrative Reform. This deliberation council was established in 1981 by Suzuki Zenko, the then Prime Minister. The composition of the deliberation council was as follows: 9 members charged with the process of policy deliberation process 6 advisers assisting the 9 members in the deliberations 21 expert members 50 councilors as representatives of a myriad of interest groups The deliberation council offered a number of recommendations on reform of both the tax system and the administration (structural reforms). By the end of that decade, the government had adopted and implemented the recommendations of the council. The implementation of these council's recommendations were as follows: Reform of the tax system The 1984 founding of the Management and Coordination Agency which replaced the Administrative Management Agency based in the Prime Minister's office Privatization of the assets owned by the state: Examples of these assets are the railroad and telephone services which were both owned by the state By 1990, most of the recommendations of the deliberation council had been implemented and hence actualized. Another deliberation council was founded in 1990. The council called Election Systems Research Council worked hard to offer submissions on the election system reform. The council recommended single-seat constituency system as opposed to the multiple-seat constituency system which had been in use for a very long time. The reform recommended by the council was enacted in 1994 (Krauss & Pekkanen, 2004). 4.0 Conclusion In conclusion, it is clearly evident that the elaborate policy making process in Japan does not in any way evade the avid contribution and influence of the elite bureaucracy. This group initiates the policy formulation process and influences the adoption of its policy recommendations by the government despite the fact that the deliberation councils lack authority to hold the government under obligation to adopt its recommendations. Whatever way one looks at it the informal community of the elite bureaucracy is the main power point which through its late night informal meetings in the posh hotels and restaurants in Tokyo is able to influence and enact all the policies that eventually get the government's adoption. Therefore, it is indeed evident that the elite bureaucracy in society is behind all the policies that get initiated and enacted in Japan. References Encyclopedia Britannica Online, (2009): Japanese Civil Code, In Encyclopedia Britannica, Retrieved on 18th May 2009 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/301097/Japanese-Civil-Cod Otake H, (2000): Power Shuffles and Policy Processes, Tokyo: JCIE, pp125-151 Thayer N B, (1969): How the Conservatives Rule Japan, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp123-127 Matthews E A, (2003): Japan's New Nationalism, Foreign Affairs Journal 82:6 November/December 2003 Martin C & Stronach B, (1992): Politics East and West: A Comparison of Japanese and British Political Culture, New York: M.E. Sharpe Publishers, pp134-142 Krauss, E S & Pekkanen R (2004): Party Adaptation to Electoral Reform: The Discreet Charm of the LDP, Journal of Japanese Studies Volume 30, Number 1, winter 2004 Johnson D T, (2002): The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp54-57 Read More