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Growing Democracy in Japan: the Parliamentary Cabinet System Since 1868 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Kentucky University of Kentucky UKnowledge Asian Studies Race, Ethnicity, and Post-Colonial Studies 5-15-2014 Growing Democracy in Japan: The Parliamentary Cabinet System since 1868 Brian Woodall Georgia Institute of Technology Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Woodall, Brian, "Growing Democracy in Japan: The Parliamentary Cabinet System since 1868" (2014). Asian Studies. 4. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_asian_studies/4 Growing Democracy in Japan Growing Democracy in Japan The Parliamentary Cabinet System since 1868 Brian Woodall Due to variations in the technical specifications of different electronic reading devices, some elements of this ebook may not appear as they do in the print edition. Readers are encouraged to experiment with user settings for optimum results. Copyright © 2014 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Woodall, Brian. Growing democracy in Japan : the parliamentary cabinet system since 1868 / Brian Woodall. pages cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8131-4501-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8131-4502-0 (pdf) — ISBN 978-0-8131-4503-7 (epub) 1. Cabinet system—Japan. 2. Legislative bodies—Japan—History. 3. Democracy—Japan. 4. Japan—Politics and government—1868- I. Title. JQ1642.W66 2014 320.952—dc23 2014010370 This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses To my mother and the memory of my father Contents List of Abbreviations and Japanese Terms ix Note on Conventions xi Introduction 1 1. The Anti-Westminsterian Roots of Japan’s Parliamentary Cabinet System, 1868–1946 31 2. Comprador Cabinets and Democracy by the Sword, 1946–1955 83 3. Corporatist Cabinets and the Emergence of the “1955 System,” 1955–1972 115 4. Confederate Cabinets and the Demise of the “1955 System,” 1972–1993 143 5. Disjoined Cabinets—Act I: Coalition Governments and the Lost Decades, 1993–2006 167 6. Disjoined Cabinets—Act II: Twisted Diets and Lost Leadership Opportunity, 2006–2013 189 Conclusion 211 Acknowledgments 223 Appendix A. Japanese Cabinets and Cabinet Ministers Database 225 Appendix B. Ministers’ Parliamentary and Social Attributes 227 Appendix C. Ministerial Hierarchy 231 Notes 235 Selected References 245 Index 269 Abbreviations and Japanese Terms AMA Administrative Management Agency Anpo Japan-U.S. Mutual Security Treaty ARC Administrative Reform Council AVM Administrative Vice Minister CEFP Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy CLB Cabinet Legislation Bureau CLO Central Liaison Office daimyō feudal lord DLP Democratic Liberal Party DPJ Democratic Party of Japan FEC Far Eastern Commission G2 Counterintelligence Section (U.S. occupation) genrō elder statesman hanbatsu leaders from the main outside domains (Satsuma, Chōshū, Tosa, and Hizen) GHQ General Headquarters (U.S. occupation) GS Government Section (U.S. occupation) IRAPA Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association JCCM Japanese Cabinets and Cabinet Ministers Database JCP Japan Communist Party JSP Japan Socialist Party jūshin senior statesman kantei Official Residence of the Prime Minister (equivalent to the U.S. White House) “KY” “unable to read the air” (kūki yomenai), clueless LDP Liberal Democratic Party LKPS Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal MCI Ministry of Commerce and Industry METI Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry ix x Abbreviations and Japanese Terms MITI Ministry of International Trade and Industry MP Member of Parliament (elected member of the National Diet) MPT Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications NDL National Diet Library OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OPEC Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries PARC Policy Affairs Research Council PMO Prime Minister’s Office Rinchō Second Ad Hoc Commission on Administrative Reform SACO Special Action Committee on Okinawa Sat-Chō cabal post-Meiji Restoration leaders from Satsuma and Chōshū domains SDF Self-Defense Forces Seiyūkai Friends of Constitutional Government (political party) SWNCC State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee Tōdai Tokyo University tozama “outside lord” (certain powerful daimyō) zoku policy tribe zoku giin policy specialist Note on Conventions Throughout the text, Japanese personal names are given in the common Japanese manner, with the surname followed by the given name. The main exception to this rule is made in the case of Japanese writers whose works are well known to Western readers. The names of cabinets (for example, the Kuroda cabinet, second Ōhira cabinet, etc.) follow the system employed on the website of the Prime Minister and His Cabinet (http://www.kantei .go.jp/jp/rekidai/index.html). Macron marks are used except in cases where the word in question is widely familiar to Western readers, such as Tokyo and Osaka instead of Tōkyō and Ōsaka. xi Introduction After being in Government one realizes that Parliament has a somewhat more peripheral role to perform. Parliament is, in fact, not the centre of government. The centre of Government is the Cabinet. —British cabinet minister quoted in Donald D. Searing, Westminster’s World (1994), 329 (italics added) I must have attended nearly ninety Cabinet meetings. They lasted an average of ten minutes and all I did was sign documents. —Former health minister and future prime minister Kan Naoto, quoted in Aurelia George Mulgan, Japan’s Failed Revolution (2003a), 156 System Failure On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, an apprehensive nation looked to Prime Minister Kan Naoto and his cabinet for leadership and reassur- ance in the aftermath of a series of cascading disasters. Unleashed by the most powerful temblor ever to hit the quake-prone country, the catastro- phe began with the Eastern Japan Great Earthquake, one of the five stron- gest in recorded history. Hundreds of aftershocks followed, and millions of households and businesses were left without electrical power. The earth- quake produced an enormous tsunami that propelled a lethal wall of water ten kilometers inland. Nearly twenty thousand people died and more than three hundred thousand were displaced. Hundreds of thousands of homes, buildings, roads, bridges, railway lines, and other elements of critical infrastructure were destroyed or damaged. In addition, the earth- quake and tsunami disabled the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in hydrogen explosions and visible damage to three reactors. These natural and man-made disasters produced a vast, heart-wrenching humanitarian crisis that was painstakingly reported by the domestic and international media. The survivors desperately needed shelter, drinking water and food, bathroom facilities, and medical care. And, with a late winter storm approaching, no time could be wasted before 1 2 Growing Democracy in Japan launching a large-scale, coordinated rescue and recovery effort. Govern- ment spokespeople called on citizens to remain calm and downplayed reports of a nuclear catastrophe. But the leadership displayed by Kan and his cabinet was ridiculed by the mass media. One day after the earthquake, Kan assessed the stricken nuclear power plant from a helicopter (evoking criticism that his visit delayed crucial venting at the plant) and reportedly asked officials on the scene, “What the hell is going on?” (Guardian, November 2, 2011). Then, for the next few days Kan and his government’s spokespeople more or less read from a script written by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the utility company that operates the plant. The Kan government repeatedly assured the nation that the situation was under control, even after the order was issued to evacuate tens of thousands of people living within a twelve-mile radius of the plant. The Kan government was also criticized for its human- itarian response. “It’s been a week, and there’s still been no government help,” said a resident of one of the hardest hit areas, expressing the exas- peration of many victims (Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2011). In response, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio conceded, “In hindsight, we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and coordinating all that information and provided it faster” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, March 18, 2011). The fears of a distrustful public were substantiated when dangerous levels of radioactivity
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