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A Brief Primer on Japanese Politics
There’s a deep sense of disillusionment and malaise here in Japan. Perhaps, rather than sleeping through politics, the country is just ignoring it. Remember the 80s, when this country was going to take over the world? Many people (including me) spent that decade learning Japanese in school, preparing for a future when we’d need language skills to impress our bosses.
As it happened, I did need it. But that’s just me. For the rest of the Western world, the takeover got lost in two decades of Japanese economic recession and general stagnation. The economy has been so sluggish — and for so long — that it’s hardly even a political issue any more. Successive governments have pulled so many levers, pumped so much new currency into the economy, that it’s like watching one of those movie scenes where a character continues to perform violent CPR on some lifeless unfortunate, with ever more desperation, while everyone stands around pitying them.
What Happened?
A large proportion of the Japanese public has disengaged from politics. The population, however, gets ever-older and ever-closer to the inevitable explosion of its social security time bomb. Japan already has the grayest demographics in the world (26% over the age of 65, as opposed to 14% in the US). Seen mainly in the waiting rooms of government hospitals, that elderly population also has most of the savings and the heaviest political clout, and shut out the voices of the remaining young people, leaving even forty-somethings with little hope of ever collecting a retirement fund.
At one point, a government agency simply lost most of the country’s pension records, leaving the system with no way of knowing who’d contributed or not. A brief outrage occurred, a government fell, and was duly returned a few years later after the next government proved even less competent.
There’s a sense, similar to that among voters in Western countries, that the political system is opaque and that the average man cannot influence the decision-making process. There’s an air of helplessness and despair at it all (sound familiar?)
But there are no mavericks in Japan, no rebels lining up to take down the system. Those that do appear seem to disappear just as fast. The system, as rotten as it is, seems rock-solid, and it doesn’t include you. It might not be that people lost interest, but that they never had it in the first place. Participatory democracy has never been big in Japan; people are used to having their rulers tell them what to do, and obeying.
The Political Playground
Since 2005, Japan has had eight prime ministers, including two non-consecutive terms from Shinzō Abe. Most were removed by their own parties over insignificant disputes, without much regard for public opinion. Few can name all eight of them today. In that time, the governing party has changed twice (which is actually an improvement, given the same party has been in power for all except three years since the Second War War).
And that’s just how hopeless politics looks to the Japanese. Foreign residents are even more detached from the political process due to cultural and language barriers, and a sense that one shouldn’t interfere in the politics of an adopted country, especially if your residency visa might be affected.
The local media — while not operating at Chinese levels of sycophancy — is still held captive. Criticize politicians too much and journalists get shut out of press conferences and events, denied the access they need to do their job. The media has been further muzzled by a new State Secrecy Law, introduced last December, which makes it easier to imprison whistleblowers and arrest journalists for divulging anything determined to be a “special state secret.” The exact process for deciding what constitutes a secret, of course, is unknown.
(As an aside, if you’re looking for a great read about “real” politics in Japan – how the yakuza pervades every level of business and government and how it’s all the result of the US occupation, you must read Tokyo Underworld by Robert Whiting. Great book, if a little depressing.)
Getting Them Out on the Streets
There are, however, two issues that get the Japanese public steamed up: nuclear power and national defense. It’s been over four years since the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which was part of the wider tsunami disaster that killed over 15,000 in the region. But although no one died as a result of the nuclear accident itself, there’s a deep mistrust of the authorities over the seriousness of the problem, and strong opposition to firing up the country’s dormant nuclear plants again.
The government, on the other hand, says the country’s energy needs can only be met with nuclear power and has begun restarting facilities. The result is street protests, still going strong since 2011. Progress of the cleanup at Fukushima is, unsurprisingly, a secret.
![Nuclear demonstration in Tokyo [courtesy Sigenari Honda on Flickr]](https://cdn.ricochet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/6208139885_03c9d147d7_b.jpg)
National defense is just as tricky. Under the post-war Japanese constitution imposed by General MacArthur and the US Occupation Forces in the 1940s, Japan was — and supposedly still is — prohibited from having a military in exchange for promises of protection by the United States.
Those stipulations have been interpreted more creatively in the years since the Americans left. Japan now has one of the world’s best-equipped militaries under the guise of its “Self-Defense Forces,” which have been deemed legally permissable so long as they don’t fight outside Japan. Japan sent a token peacekeeping force to Iraq — a massively controversial move locally — but they weren’t armed.
The current government is seeking to change this too, re-interpreting “self-defense” to include anything that might help Japan’s allies overseas. The US, having changed its stance since the war, wants to see Japan taking a more active role as a military power in the region.
Cue more street protests, usually on a weekly basis around the parliament buildings. Then there’s the street protests down in Okinawa, where the locals want remaining US forces out altogether. The issue is a no-win for the powers that be, and it’s a raging fire in the country; in one case, when a protestor self-immolated to show his opposition to the changes, quite literally so. Other protestors are only slightly less passionate.
Patriotism and militarism are seen as great evils by the wider Japanese left, having led the country to a self-inflicted cataclysm in the 1930s and 40s. They think it can happen again.
The Sleepy Part
Demonstrations, loudspeakers, and the occasional extreme act are just a sideshow, though. Most of the Japanese public are too busy working till midnight or shopping to care about what goes on in the Diet.
For the majority of us, the only time we encounter politics is just before elections, when candidates drive around the neighborhood in vans with loudspeakers on top. Advertising in the media is banned during campaigns, leaving shouting on the streets the only option. Anyone who wakes me up with a loudhailer at 9 AM on a Sunday would automatically lose my vote, but then I’m a foreigner who can’t vote anyway, and no-one else seems to mind.
Published in Foreign Policy, Politics
Surveys are very popular here in Japan. They do indicate the trend you described, but some attribute it to the women. The lifetime job with a pension is long gone, and men are therefore less eligible than they were. Also, many women with good jobs are living with their parents who pay all their living expenses. Therefore they can spend their salaries on travel and clothes and don’t want or need a husband. Another factor is the addiction to smart phones and the lack of real social interaction. Very profitable classes have been initiated in how to find a spouse.
John, no they haven’t. Members of the Diet are not lawyers, and don’t legislate. Legislation is written by the bureaucracy. It is then read to members of the Diet and they make minor changes.
There are still nine to a dozen factions within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Each faction puts forth policies that usually conflict with the policies of other factions. The prime minister’s position is still rotated among the leaders of each faction. One change is that the factor’s leader is now becoming generational. For example Koizumi’s son is now the leader of his faction (Koizumi was a popular and successful prime minister during George Bush’s presidency.)
The press clubs still operate. Each ministry and faction (and major companies) has a press club. Candidates must be invited and pay a fee (these are the major newspapers and magazines who participate in each club). The sponsor provides a space in their working area with bed, food, and office amenities. The sponsor briefs the members of the press club and gives them “inside” information. The press club members then meet and agree on the most positive way to present the days news. Each then writes their article for their newspaper or magazine. Newspapers still have an impact on politics here in Japan. They are profitable and influential. They have always had a subscription based model, not an advertising model.
jonsouth, thanks very much for an excellent and well written survey. I think one other fundamental is that Japan’s political system is Confucian. This is a top down system. The government owns all of the “rights” and will dole them out at their discretion. This is 180 degrees different than our system, where the rights reside with the individual who then give the government certain responsibilities. The individual has no cachet here in Japan.
I should say that’s not my personal contention as I’ve never investigated it myself, but it’s a commonly accepted belief (the book ‘Tokyo Underworld’ is the one that puts it most clearly in English). Small business owners routinely pay money to local ‘business associations’ assuming they are yakuza-backed, but never really questioning it.
While Japan is pretty safe in the sense that street crime and theft is low, I’ve also heard claims that local police under-report crime figures to headquarters in order to not make their district appear worse than others. Again, no real proof of this but it’s often rumored.
Thanks for a much more thorough description of how the ‘press club’ model operates. I suppose such structures exist in western countries too, though on a far more informal basis. Again, the public sees relationships like this and understands they are not part of the process. Older people tend to trust the system more, people under 40 are pretty cynical about it.
Unfortunately that’s true. One thing the Japanese political press is not–it is not adversarial.
That’s a problem with crime stats anywhere: it is in the government’s interest to lie. It can be beneficial to inflate statistics as well, if the government wants to pass intrusive or strict laws.
Crime, it’s like everything else, as long as the Yakuza didn’t overreach, cause scandal, they were allowed to run the rackets, which are seen as victimless crime. Japanese in Japan are the most law abiding people on earth. I’ve seen extraordinarily expensive ceramics left on their street displays over night. Abuse and even rape of foreigners is different however, but foreigners are, well, foreign.
In Japanese, the word is “outsider” or gaijin.
I have heard that police tend to attribute all unsolved crimes to Korean riffraff.
I sent the post to Jolon, a young friend who is an American expat living near Kobe. Here are some of his comments:
Further from Jolon:
Er, the entire point of my piece was that most Japanese are disillusioned about politics and don’t care. Was that not clear?
As for the rest, I’ll just say it’s my opinion & observation after living here 13 years, and nothing more. There’s an unfortunate condition among expats in Japan to get into arguments over who “understands Japan more” – I prefer to avoid them.
Amen to this.
Thanks for the informative post, matches my experiences. I picked up the Whiting book on your recommendation, hopefully it won’t be too depressing.
Since I started following the local news in Japanese, I’ve been surprised at the number and types of serious crimes (murders, rapes and disappearances) which are reported. Like other westerners, I’d always had the impression that Japan was about the safest place around. I also wonder if all of the crimes make it into their statistics.
I found it fascinating to watch some of the deliberations in the Diet regarding the defense legislation approved last month. After over a hundred hours of Q&A (most of it broadcast nationwide), a majority of the public still felt that the legislation hadn’t been adequately explained. I’ll grant that the cabinet didn’t seem to be fully transparent regarding all the issues, but the opposition had all the time in the world to ask questions. I chalked up the public’s opinion to the fact that most Japanese people don’t understand what it’s all about. The details provided publicly by Abe made sense to me, but very few of the Japanese public have had my experiences.
A related point: While having a conversation recently with a middle-aged Japanese acquaintance, we discussed the political leanings of Japanese press. I noted that much of the mainstream media in the U.S. is left-leaning. He said that the situation is similar in Japan. For example, while I’ve always considered Yomiuri to be right-wing, he didn’t fully agree. He felt that this is one reason why so many Japanese didn’t support the new defense legislation.