<p>Agriculture is one of the most politically powerful sectors in Japanese national politics. This book provides the first comprehensive account of the political power of Japanese farmers. This definitive text analyses the organisational and electoral bais of farmers' political power, including the role of agricultural interest groups, the mobilisation of the farm vote and links between farmers and politicians in the Diet. Agrarian power has helped to produce the distinctly pro-rural, anti-urban bias of postwar Japanese governments, resulting in a general neglect of urban consumer interests and sustained opposition to market opening for farm products. This book represents a major study of Japanese agricultural organisations in their multifarious roles as interest groups, agents of agricultural administration, electoral resource providers and mammouth business groups. It describes the policy issues that engage farmers' concerns and identifies the agricultural commodities that carry the greatest political significance.</p>

The Politics of Agriculture in Japan (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)

Business & Money

Mulgan, Aurelia George

Economics

Routledge

<p>In this study, Mulgan analyzes the reasons why, despite broad public support, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi has not achieved the sweeping economic reforms he first proposed in April of 2001. She explains how Japan's traditional policymaking process has thwarted the Prime Minister's best intentions and contends that revolutionary political change is necessary before Japan's economic recovery can begin. Mulgan teaches at the U. of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy. Distributed in the U.S. by ISBS. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)</p>

Japan's Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reform

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Asia Pacific Pr

Ozawa Ichirō and Japanese Politics: Old Versus New (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)

Ozawa Ichirō was the axis on which Japanese politics turned for more than two decades. He helped to reshape the electoral system, political funding rules, the evolution of the party system, the nature of executive government, the roles and powers of bureaucrats, and the conduct of parliamentary and policymaking processes. Admired and reviled in almost equal measure, Ozawa has been the most debated and yet least understood politician in Japan, with little agreement to be found amongst the many who have debated his patent political assets and palpable political flaws.  This book examines the political goals, behaviour, methods and practices of Ozawa Ichirō, and in doing so, provides fascinating insights into the inner workings of Japanese politics. It explores Ozawa’s paradoxical and conflicting contributions in terms of two contrasting models of ‘old’ and ‘new’ politics. Indeed, therein lies the problem of understanding the ‘real’ Ozawa: he remained a practitioner of old politics despite his rhetorical agenda of change to bring about new politics. In seeking to unravel the Ozawa enigma, Aurelia George Mulgan reveals his primary motivations, to establish whether he sought power primarily to enact reforms, or, whether his reform goals simply disguised power-seeking objectives. This volume seeks to illuminate Ozawa’s true character as a politician, and untangle the complex elements of old and new politics that he represents.  Through an in-depth study of Ozawa and his political activities, this book shows how the Japanese political system works at the micro level of individual politicians, political relationships and systems. As such it will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics, Asian politics and political systems.

Reference

Japan’s Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reform asks why, despite all the high expectations, the Japanese public’s desire for economic reform, and leadership of a majority coalition in a parliamentary democracy, the reformer Prime Minister Koizumi has not achieved the economic reforms expected of him since he surprisingly attained power over a year ago. To unravel this ‘puzzle’, Aurelia George Mulgan eschews the simplicities of both cultural and rational choice explanations and systematically tests the propositions in the comparative literature on ‘failed reform’. The result is one of the best books ever written about contemporary Japanese politics. It explains how, despite British-style parliamentary institutions, Japan’s very ‘un-Westminster’ traditional policymaking process involving the ruling party and the bureaucracy’s structure and linkage has stymied and will probably continue to stymie even a sincere and active Prime Minister’s best reform intentions. This book should be read by all political scientists, journalists, economists, and students interested in contemporary Japan.  Ellis S. Krauss  Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies  University of California, San Diego.  The author takes a scalpel to dissect Japan’s dysfunctional political system. She shows with wonderful clarity and depth of knowledge why the Koizumi reforms are not succeeding, and why revolutionary political change is needed as a precondition for economic recovery. The book should be required reading for anyone involved with contemporary Japan.  J.A.A. Stockwin  University of Oxford.

ANU E Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mulgan, Aurelia George. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mulgan, Aurelia George

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mulgan, Aurelia George. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Politics of Agriculture in Japan (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)

Japan's Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reform

Ozawa Ichirō and Japanese Politics: Old Versus New (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)

Ozawa Ichirō and Japanese Politics: Old Versus New (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)

Japan's Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reform