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8 Governance in Japan: the implications of the research The downfall of the DPJ in December 2012 was unsurprising, given its growing unpopularity (Reed et al. 2013: 34–46). Defeating the Yoshihiko Noda government in the general election of 16 December 2012, the LDP’s Shinzō Abe won his second term as Prime Minister. After his first brief tenure between 2006 and 2007 was widely seen as a failure, not many expected a revival. Therefore, his return as the premier in December 2012 was received with surprise. The power of Abe’s LDP-led Coalition administration has
Introduction Since around 2010, the prevailing perception of threat in Japanese public opinion and official policy circles has been centred on the possible dangers posed by a rising China. Specific incidents such as repeated Chinese maritime and aerial incursions into the Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by Beijing, certainly reinforce these perceptions. The angst and anxiety of a declining Japan being eclipsed by its giant neighbour undoubtedly marked the so-called zeitgeist . In this sense, one might argue that traditional geopolitical
This book attempts a systematic comparison of Japanese and British climate policy and politics. Focusing on institutional contrasts between Japan and Britain in terms of corporatist or pluralist characteristics of government-industry relations and decision-making and implementation styles, it examines how and to what extent institutions explain climate policy in the two countries. In doing this, the book explores how climate policy is shaped by the interplay of nationally specific institutional factors and universal constraints on actors, which emanate from characteristics of the global warming problem itself. It also considers how corporatist institutional characteristics may make a difference in attaining sustainable development. Overall, the book provides a set of comparisons of climate policy and new frameworks of analysis, which could be built on in future research on cross-national climate policy analysis.
5 Policy developments in Japan on global warming: the politics of conflict and the producer-oriented policy response Japan contributes only about 5 per cent of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions, but this is the fourth highest in the world, following that of the USA (around 25 per cent), Russia (7 per cent) and China (14 per cent). Although Japanese effort to reduce its emissions can make only a marginal difference, it bears an important responsibility in taking part in the world’s effort to tackle global warming. Carbon dioxide accounts for about 90 per
Chapter 3 Political underpinnings: the US–Japan axis The political foundations for international financial cooperation are weaker today than they were in the 1970s and 1980s. If we have worries about the stability of the international financial system, it is important to understand in what way these foundations are weaker and how this has come about. For, while the pace of technological innovation in finance (as in manufacturing) has accelerated, and while the size and salience of finance in the world economy have greatly increased, the political capability to
This book explores the transformation of the Japanese state in response to a variety of challenges by focusing on two case studies: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) regulation and anti-monopoly regulation after the 1980s, which experienced a disjuncture and significant transformation during the period, with particularistic approaches embracing competition. The case studies set up the state as the key locus of power, in contrast to pluralist and rational choice schools, which regard the state as insignificant. The analytical framework is drawn from key theories of governance and the state including the concepts of the core executive and the regulatory state. The book explores the extent to which there is asymmetric dominance on the part of Japan’s core executive through an examination of recent developments in the Japanese regulatory tradition since the 1980s. It concludes that the transformation of the Japanese state in the two case studies can be characterised as Japanese regulatory state development, with a view that the state at a macro level is the key locus of power. This book explores the transformation of the state and governance in a Japanese context and presents itself as an example of the new governance school addressing the state, its transformation, and the governance of the political arena in Japanese politics and beyond, setting out a challenge to the established body of pluralist and rational choice literature on Japanese politics.
8 Shifting constraints, evolving opportunities and the search for the “strategic” in the European Union and Japan bilateral partnership Elena Atanassova-Cornelis Introduction For Europe (the European Union)1 Japan represents the most institutionalised bilateral link in the Union’s engagement with the Asia-Pacific.2 Based on the shared values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, the EU’s relations with Japan have steadily evolved since the early 1990s. A major driving force is the deepening economic interdependence between the two. In 2016, Japan was the EU
the Clara Barton Birthplace Museum ( Washington Post , 1921 ). Outside of the United States, too, the idea of a historical Red Cross museum found some followers. In Europe, an individual collector from Salzburg, Austria, curated a museum dedicated to humanitarian rescue missions, in 1929, and in Japan, a Red Cross museum opened its doors some years later. Unlike their American role model, both museums had only a marginal impact, however. The Japanese museum opened only temporarily for
a third never tell anyone about their experience ( McCleary-Sills et al. , 2016 : 225). A 2018 study on health and justice service responses in Northern Uganda confirmed that South Sudanese refugee survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and torture knew of the reporting system but at times questioned the effectiveness of the process ( Liebling et al. , 2020 ). Similarly, the Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute’s (JICA-RI) research on the
experienced this, and some have dared to describe this blindness. One was Jack London, the famous American writer sent to Korea to cover the Russo-Japanese war in 1904, who wrote, confused, of ‘black moving specks’, the ‘hubbub’, in short, ‘a war of ghosts’ (quoted in Audouin-Rouzeau, 2008 : 244). And when Le Figaro sent special correspondent Tanguy Berthemet to Sévaré (Mali) as France began its 2013 military operation (Operation Serval), he reported: ‘There is a war in