This volume presents the research and insights of six authors concerning the first general election in Japan's House of Representatives since the passage in 1994 of a political and electoral reform law. The October 1996 election was seen by reformers as a litmus test for the new law, which they thought would alter the style of campaigning in Japan. Campaign strategies dependent on the clout of an individual candidate's koenkai, or personal support group, were expected to give way to strategies emphasizing party-based electioneering. The essays collected here conclude that actual campaigning style remained mostly unchanged. The authors focus on individual politicians of varied standing within the Diet, their koenkai in both urban and rural areas, and the large companies and their unions that endorse candidates.

How Electoral Reform Boomeranged: Continuity in Japanese Campaigning Style

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Japan Center for International Exchange

Many policy analysts believe China-Japan-U.S. relations to be the key triangle in world politics of the 21st century. The ten essays in this book probe the interrelations of the three major powers of the Asia Pacific region. Experts from China, Japan, and the United States examine the evolving nature of trilateral relations by analyzing the impact on their interactions of such international events as the Asian financial crisis, the situation on the Korean peninsula, and the new nuclear arms race in South Asia occasioned by India's and Pakistan's nuclear tests. Recognizing that the continuing prosperity and security of Asia Pacific is largely contingent upon enhanced cooperation between China, Japan, and the United States, the authors examine the ways in which the three countries can collaborate to resolve specific troublesome regional issues and ways in which bilateral relations among the three can be improved. The Asian financial crisis, the South Asian nuclear tests, and the exchange of visits between President Bill Clinton and President Jiang Zemin appear to have drastically changed the context for discussion of trilateral relations. The warming of Sino-U.S. relations in particular has caused some analysts to question whether in the next century the United States might make a strategic choice to downplay its close security and economic relations with Japan in favor of a broadened and deepened relationship with China. China's rise, particularly if it is perceived as having come about at Japan's expense, will call into question the objective of trilateral dialogue: Is it to develop equidistant relations, or to reinforce current bilateral relationships while maintaining the status quo? These new dimensions of the China-Japan-U.S. relationship point to the importance of developing a sustained trilateral dialogue to manage the psychology of trilateral relations, for the benefit of the three countries and the region, as well.

New Dimensions of China-Japan-U.S. Relations

Exchange, Edited by the Japan Center for International

Three countries—China, Japan, and the United States—and relations among them are likely to have a disproportionate impact on prospects for peace and prosperity in Asia Pacific in the twenty-first century. This volume contains essays by six experienced American analysts on different aspects of the trilateral relationship. The issues addressed include Chinese and American views of national security, the influence of Korea and Taiwan in China-Japan-U.S. relations, the U.S.-Japan security agreement and theater missile defense, the implications if China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and the relative risks of intra- and interstate conflict in Asia. An introduction by David M. Lampton situates these issues in the broader context of the trilateral relationship and highlights the importance of sustained dialogue among the three major actors.

Major Power Relations in Northeast Asia: Win-Win or Zero-Sum Game

Lampton, David M.

The role of civil society in domestic and international governance (JCIE papers)

Unknown, Author

In the wake of the cold war, the international community has faced a sudden increase in regional conflicts. While the likelihood of large-scale wars between major powers has significantly decreased, smaller-scale regional and ethnic conflicts have proliferated, presenting a new challenge to strategists and policymakers around the world. Today, the need to strengthen peacekeeping mechanisms and to prevent and resolve conflicts is a major item on the international agenda. In this volume, five Japanese international relations experts examine such topics as UN reform for the enhancement of preventive diplomacy capabilities; post-conflict peacebuilding; the principle of self-determination and ethnic conflict; the impact of forced displacement of populations on conflict prevention efforts; reconceptualizing security communities and power-sharing for preventing conflict; and the connection between human rights, democratization, and preventive diplomacy. By analyzing the international community's responses to conflicts in such locations as the African Great Lakes region, the Balkans, Myanmar, and Cambodia, the authors draw lessons for managing regional conflict through preventive diplomacy. Contributors include Akizuki Hiroko (Asia University), Hoshino Toshiya (Osaka University), Kikkawa Gen (Kobe University), Miyawaki Noboru (Matsuyama University), and Shoji Mariko (Keiai University).

Containing Conflict: Cases in Preventive Diplomacy

Japan and the United States face many similar challenges of governance. Japan in particular is confronted with a serious crisis of governance with profound implications for its ability to deal with the decade-long economic stagnation and the deteriorating public trust in political processes. This book explores the evolving patterns of governance in the two countries as they grapple with the changes wrought by the forces of globalization. Focusing on the volatile period of Japanese politics since the burst of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, the book features chapters on Japanese public opinion, elections, political finance, party politics, policymaking, institutional reform, and the role of the private sector in public affairs. Five Japanese scholars and practitioners write about the efforts under way in Japan to restructure its electoral and governing processes and to cope with its major policy challenges, and five American policy experts respond with insights from American experience. Contributors include Kato Hideki (Japan Initiative), Shiozaki Yasuhisa, (Japanese House of Representatives), Taniguchi Masaki, (University of Tokyo), Yoshida Shin'ichi, (Asahi Shimbun and University of Tokyo), and E. J. Dionne Jr., Paul C. Light, James M. Lindsay, and R. Kent Weaver (Brookings Institution).

Governance for a New Century: Japanese Challenges, American Experience

A major evolution in Japan's system of governance has been taking place in recent years as politicians have increasingly begun to participate in the policymaking process where bureaucrats used to play the predominant role. The six chapters in this volume are written by members of the Diet from the Liberal Democratic, Democratic, and New Komeito parties. These members of the new generation of politicians in Japan are concerned about designing a new architecture for policymaking. Relations between politicians and bureaucrats and how those relations should be restructured are discussed. Restructuring the policymaking process also involves questions of the relationships between the prime minister and the governing party organizations, the role of Diet committees, and the issue of staff support for politicians, parties, the Diet, and the prime minister. Each chapter explores these and other policymaking matters in the context of a specific policy issue, such as finance, information technology, public works, education, and corporate policy. Chapters provide important insights into the substantive issue at hand and the policy process relating to it. Contributors include Japanese House of Representatives members Nemoto Takumi, Furukawa Motohisa, Ito Tatsuya, Maehara Seiji, Hase Hiroshi, and Ueda Isamu.

Policymaking in Japan: Defining the Role of Politicians

Curtis, Gerald L.

The prospect of a new, rapidly rising China poses both opportunities and challenges for regional community building in Asia Pacific. In this book, intellectual leaders from the region present their perspectives on China's development. Four chapters by Chinese authors analyze the domestic dynamics related to the country's political and economic development as well as its external economic and political/security relationships. Contributors from Japan, Korea, member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Australia/New Zealand cover the growing political influence of China in the region, its influence on security in the region, and the implications of China's continuing economic growth. Five final chapters examine China's regional strategy toward Asia Pacific, Japan-China cooperation on regional community building, taking a greater role in regional security arrangements and the regional economic order, and the cultural implications for the region of the rise of China. Contributors include Yang Guangbin (Renmin University, Japan), Men Honghua (Central Party School, China), Wang Rongjun (Chinese Academy of Social Science), Ni Feng (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Takahara Akio (Rikkyo University, Japan), Ohashi Hideo (Senshu University, Japan), Lee Geun, (Seoul National University, Korea), Jwa Sung-Hee (Korea Economic Research Institute), Morada Noel (Institute for Strategic and Development Studies, Philippines), Mari Pangestu (former executive director, Center for Strategic and International Studies), Greg Austin, (European Institute for Asian Studies, Brussels, and Australian National University), Jusuf Wanandi (Center for Strategic and International Studies, Indonesia), Chia Siow Yue (Singapore Institute of International Affairs and EADN), and Wang Gungwu, (East Asian Institute, Singapore).

The Rise of China and a Changing East Asian Order

Business & Money

Economics

The U.S.-Japan relationship has undergone many changes since the end of World War II. Perhaps the most dramatic and least understood transition was the change in perceptions and values that allowed these two former enemies—countries which shared substantially fewer ties of kinship and culture than did the United States and Europe—to become the closest of allies in a remarkably short period of time. Philanthropy and Reconciliation examines the critical role of civil society, and particularly of American and Japanese philanthropy, in rebuilding the U.S.-Japan relationship in the postwar period. Foundations and individual philanthropists set out to promote democracy in Japan, reconstruct the foundations of mutual understanding between Japan and the United States, and encourage a continuing dialogue on the future of the relationship. To do this, they provided generous support for strategic institution building, the development of human resources through support for individual study and training, the promotion of American studies in Japan and Japanese studies in the United States, and a broad range of international exchanges and dialogues. This groundbreaking study analyzes the context and implications of this support, both for understanding the past and for improving the way in which we address post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation in the future. Contributors include Kimberly Gould Ashizawa, James Gannon, Katsumata Hideko, Menju Toshihiro, and Wada Jun (Japan Center for International Exchange, Inc.), and Kimura Masato (Shibusawa Ei'ichi Memorial Foundation).

Philanthropy and Reconciliation: Rebuilding Postwar U.S.-Japan Relations

Literature & Fiction

Efforts to build an East Asia community have gained momentum over the past decade. In a period of dynamic change and shifting balances of power, regional leaders seek to strengthen cooperation and stabilize relations between countries. While community building is still at an early stage, there is a growing sense it has reached a historic crossroads: it can be further advanced or alternatively succumb to the region's many disparities and emerging rivalries.  In E ast Asia at a Crossroads, leading policy experts from inside and outside the region analyze the dynamics of community building. The contributors propose ways of moving forward to enhance regional peace and prosperity while strengthening East Asia's capacity to meet its growing global responsibilities.  Contributors include Jesus Estanislao (Institute of Corporate Directors and the Institute for Solidarity in Asia), Carolina G. Hernandez (University of the Philippines and Institute for Strategic and Development Studies), Frank Jannuzi (U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations), Karl Kaiser (Harvard University), Qin Yaqing (China Foreign Affairs University), Rizal Sukma (CSIS Jakarta), and Hitoshi Tanaka (JCIE).

East Asia at a Crossroads

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