The Triangle at Work: Politics, Bureaucracy, Business in Japan During One-Party Dominance 1953-93

This study emphasizes on the working of the triangular structure politics-business-bureaucracy) in the context of One-party Dominance System and aims to analyze the factors that led to the rise and decline of the Liberal Democratic Party's rule in Japan during the period 1955-1993. The study highlights the importance and role of each aspect of the triangle during the different phases of postwar Japan. It stresses that it is the functioning of this triad, which led to the deterioration of Japanese politics giving rise to high corruption and numerous scandals finally bringing down the One-party Dominance system. In other words, if there was no tripod structure, the continuation of one-party rule was in question and also it was only because the structure was there the Liberal Democratic Party, the ruling party could succumb to the rising demands in the later periods leading to its overall downfall. The issues focused in such analysis are the factors responsible for the longevity of LDP rule, the changes and variation in the whole set up responding to different periods of time, and the major advantages and disadvantages of the whole system. This is an empirical study with the principal objective of undertaking an intensive research into the structure and functioning of the triumvirate structure. This study is based both on primary and secondary sources. To substantiate the argument, a case study on environmental policy-making in Japan is carried out to show how the different branches reacted to situation of more substantial in nature and how they group up in tackling major issues to keep themselves in power.