System of government: making it happen

Teacher note

• State-local relationship
• Political participation
• Directly affecting people’s lives

In early times Japan was ruled from the Kansai area, from Kyoto and Nara, but in the mid nineteenth century the capital was moved to Tokyo.

The Kansai has remained the business and industrial heartland of Japan.

Since 1947 Japan has had its current written constitution. It is based on the three principles of sovereignty of the people, pacifism and respect for basic human rights.

Though he has had a very important religious role, the Emperor has very little influence. He is a constitutional monarch, as is, for example, the Queen of New Zealand. Each constitution is distinctive.

Japan’s national parliament, the Diet, has two houses – it is “bicameral”. The lower House of Representatives takes precedence over the House of Councillors in passing laws, acting on the budget, ratifying treaties and designating the prime minister.

The lower house term of office can be up to four years, the upper house – House of Councillors – term can be six years, with half elected every three years.

As elsewhere people vote in their urban and rural electorates for national political parties – and try to influence central government to remember local needs. Representatives of rural electorates naturally enough seek to protect the interests of farmers.

They sometimes use the power of their groups to lobby – and even when not so powerful but driven by beliefs, people lobby.

Most prime ministers since World War Two have been from the Liberal Democratic Party. The Japan Socialist Party (JSP) had spent most of its time in opposition – but was the first to have a female leader in a country that has not had a woman prime minister. The largest opposition party recently has been the Democratic Socialist Party, into which some JSP members went. There is also Komeito – the “clean government party” and the Japan Communist party to be taken into account when thinking about government and opposition in Japan.

The party which wins the most seats in the lower house elections forms Japan’s national governments.

Prime Minister Abe told the Diet at the beginning of 2007 he would like to make Japan a country that will serve as a new role model in the international community of the 21st century.

He said “In order to realize this, we must not be content with the brilliant post-war Japanese success model, which our predecessors started and built from the ruins of the war”.

The Japanese Prime Minister said “It has become obvious that many of the basic frameworks, starting from the Constitution, down to the administrative system, education, economy, employment, state-local relationship, foreign policy and national security, have become incapable of adapting to the great changes taking place in the 21st century. Various changes that we are facing now could hardly be imagined at the time that I grew up, when a television, a refrigerator and a washing machine were valued as the "Three Sacred Treasures."

Mr Abe told Diet members “Now the time has come to boldly review these post-war regimes all the way back to their origins, and set sail on a new course. In order to realize "a beautiful country, Japan," my mission is none other than to draw a new vision of a nation which can withstand the raging waves for the next 50 to 100 years to come.”

State-local relationship

The people of Japan are also grouped in prefectures, the equivalent of provinces – 47 in 2002, nine of which make up the Kansai region. Prefecture governments focus on affairs that are large in scale – and often act as a liaison in coordinating the activities of two or more municipal bodies.

Municipal governments administer matters closely related to the daily life of their communities – such as education, social welfare and environmental issues.

Many of their decisions are of course influenced by policies and budgets set in the nation’s capital. Due to the ageing of society and more diverse values local administration needs are growing. There were 3,170 municipalities in 2004 – and central government wanted to reduce them to less than 2000, which has led to many merger discussions. The government has worked to cut subsidies to local government and to transfer greater taxing authority, and therefore power, from central to local government.

Prefectures and cities have locally elected governors, mayors and councillors.

Minoh’s Mayor Junichi Fujisawa faces choices about where to spend his city’s money, and where to get it from.

In discussing plans to end a ten year programme of recruiting English teachers from Hutt City he says. “We will still have native teachers of English in our schools. You may know Minoh has financial issues. We have decided to use native teachers of English who are in Japan, to drive down the cost.”

There are other things sister cities can do together. Mayor Fujisawa says “I want to learn from Hutt City. Their administration and reforms. also things we can expand about environmental action. Initiatives taken by citizens.”

Mayor: “In addition to tourism, health industries are important. Minoh has healthy walking, and mountainous areas. We need to prepare our infrastructure. Green, or eco-tourism, are the key words we use.”

Japan’s Prime Minister says it is essential to develop a system that enables regions to explore ideas and execute them, for it is the regions that best know the needs of their people. The government initiated the "Program for Helping Striving Regions to Help Themselves" so that regions can promote their independent projects, such as branding local products, promoting the regions as attractive locations for business, supporting child-raising, support for companies with forward-looking employment practices, focusing on regions that are experiencing particularly harsh employment situations, revitalising the shopping areas of local cities, promoting region-wide efforts to build communities that are comfortable and best sized to live in and that are full of life and friendly to the elderly and the disabled.

Prime Minister Abe accentuated agriculture, calling it a major industry for the regions with a vast potential as a strategic industry for the new century.
”We will aim to centralize and prioritize policy measures for those who possess the ability and motivation. We will strive to raise the scale of exports of "delicious and safe Japanese food products". We will also work to vitalize agricultural, forestry, and fishery villages by such measures as promoting exchanges between urban and rural areas” he says.

The votes of Japanese who live in rural electorates are worth more than people who live in urban seats – which helps farmers and has put them against city-dwelling Japanese consumers.

And even if many Japanese don’t take much interest in political choices, some do, as the Mayors for Peace, and Prof Anzai, the Director of Ritsumeikan’s peace museum illustrate.

Prof Anzai: “It is not easy to make statements that satisfy everyone in the community. I have my own value system. It is not so easy to make a strong statement…..“My most important value is peace and the Peace constitution. The situation going on here is against the peace constitution of Japan. The government here is now going to change the Peace constitution. I myself issue some kinds of critical statement against such statements issued by government high officials.”

Political participation

The Centre for Citizenship Education asked a reporter on Kansai TV, Ritsumeikan University political science graduate Sato san, if he thought Japanese were greatly interested in political participation. “Political participation is a basic element for democratic countries. If you don’t participate…“30 years ago there were huge demonstrations against the government. This changed nothing. So university students these days know they won’t be influencing government. Students do other things – jobs, live, study” he said.

Directly affecting people’s lives

Kansai’s prefectural governments are quite active in implementing big projects. The Kansai International Airport – an artificial island in Osaka Bay that is open all the time – was made possible because the prefectural governments worked with other interests to get it built.

Osaka City is the Kansai’s commercial capital – and the Osaka Prefecture Government’s main offices are based opposite Osaka Castle and near to the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Osaka Prefecture also helps implement Japan’s internationalisation programme – it runs the Osaka Foundation for International Exchange (OFIX).

Minoh City is within Osaka City and Prefecture, and so was Sakai City, until recently Japan’s national government gave it administrative authority similar to that of Osaka prefecture and other prefectures.

Minoh and Sakai are typical of the levels of government in the Kansai that more directly affect people’s lives.

The cities run school boards of education – even though important policies for schools are set nationally.

The cities implement important parts of Japan’s internationalisation programme – such as managing the JET programme through which assistant English teachers are placed in schools, and coordinators of international relations are placed in some council offices.

Wards – parts of cities – such as Mihara ward in Sakai City – run school lunch programmes.

Rubbish collection is administered in local authorities – Sakai has a “Super Waste to Energy System”, its “Sakai Clean Centre”.

From Anthony Haas, Asia Pacific Economic News service

First published 6 March 2007, revised 7 April 2007